THE
CATECHISM
OF
HEALTH;
SELECTED FROM THE
GERMAN OF DR. FAUST;
AND CONSIDERABLY IMPROVED BY DR.
GREGORY, OF EDINBURGH.
Published for the Use of the Citizens of the
UNITED STATES:
At the recommendation of Dr. Rush, of Philadelphia;
and Dr. Williamson; of North-Carolina, now
residing in New-York, &c.
NEW-YORK:
PRINTED BY R. WILSON,
For SAMUEL CAMPBELL, 124, Pearl-street.
1798


 




RECOMMENDATIONS.
Dr. FAUST's Catechism of Health,
as improved by Dr. Gregory of Edinburgh,
is a very valuable Work, and happily calcu-
lated to promote not only Health, but Morals
in young people. It has my best wishes for
an extensive circulation in the United States.
BENJ. RUSH.
Philadelphia, 21st March, 1798.
THE Catechism of Health, by Dr. Faust
improved and corrected by Dr. Gregory, is, in
my opinion, a Work of great merit, equally de-
serving the attention of Parents and Children.
If this Book was generally read, and the ad-
vice it contains respected, thousands of our
fellow-citizens might be saved, who perish un-
der the common discipline.
HU. WILLIAMSON.
New-York, 26th March, 1798.




PREFACE.
THE nature and purpose of this publi-
cation will be sufficiently explained by the
following extract of a letter from DR. GRE-
GORY, in Scotland, to the Editor.
"I HAVE now perused,
with great attention and much pleasure,
the translation of DR. FAUST'S Catechism
of Health, which you put into my hands a
few days ago. I adhere to the favourable
opinion of it which I expressed to you after
A3 reading


vi PREFACE.
reading only two or three pages of it when
you first shewed it me; and as in reading it
over carefully, I put my marks either of
assent and approbation, or of dissent, or of
doubt, to almost every proposition in it; I
can say, with confidence, that I think it a
work of very extraordinary merit, and one
that, if it were generally known in this
country, might be of infinite use. It is,
indeed, the best popular medical work I
ever read: nor do I in the least wonder at
the extensive distribution, and the high
estimation of it in Germany.
To the best of my judgment it con-
tains more solid good sense, and more
useful information, in less bulk, than
any medical book I ever few, from the
Aphorisms of Hippocrates to your last edi-
tion of the Family Physician inclusive;
and,

vii PREFACE.
and, what I reckon of very great conse-
quence, there is less mixture of nonsense
in it, which might either confound or
mislead those for whose use it is intend-
ed.
I highly approve your benevolent purpose
of reprinting it here, and diffusing it as
generally as possible.
I think you should print a great many
copies on the cheapest paper, that the poor
people may afford to purchase it, or, that
those in more affluent circumstances may be
encouraged to purchase great numbers of
them, and to distribute them among their
poor neighbours. By all means print a
good number in the handsomest manner on
the finest paper, to tempt fine people to
buy and to read it.
If


viii PREFACE.
If you think my name and recommenda-
tion can be of any use in promoting the
distribution of such a work, you are heartily
welcome to use them in the most public
manner, or even to print this letter at the
beginning of it. Nay more, if you please,
I will revise it, and superintend the printing
of it, and correct the press.
If you approve of this, you must publish it
under the title of "Selection from the
Catechism of Health of DR. FAUST, trans-
lated from the German, and now publish-
ed for the use of the Inhabitants of Scot-
land:" you may say revised by me if you
please. I should in that case abridge it
considerably, by omitting some things which
appear to me erroneous, or doubtful, or
useless, or whimsical; or not suited to the
state


ix PREFACE.
state and manners of the people of this
country.
DR. FAUST you will observe has some
whims: for example, about the very
free use of potatoes hurting the under-
standing: Sulphur ointment being dan-
gerous to health, &c. (I even suspect an
error in the translation there, of sulphur for
mercurial; which rashly used is very
dangerous, and may even have those
very bad effects which are imputed to
the sulphur, and which I never knew
sulphur produce.)
There are several errors, and some
very obscure passages in the translation;
evidently proceeding from the Transla-
tor's


x PREFACE.
tor's * imperfect knowledge of the Eng-
lish language, (luxes, for luxuries, re-
pulses, for repels, heavy, for severe, and
so forth.). These I should, of course,
correct in reprinting it.
The plan for extirpating the small-
pox, &c. I should omit as impracti-
cable, at least in this country, at this
time. I doubt whether it ever can suc-
ceed: But supposing the Author to be
perfectly right, this is not a time for
such a plan: And people should be
told, not always what is absolutely best
in itself, but what is the best that they
can or will do: For example, as to the
small-pox, universal inoculation, and the
* It was translated into English by Mr. BASSE,
himself, a German.                           
cool


xi PREFACE. 
cool regimen: And as to strong liquor,
not abstaining from it altogether, (as
certainly would be best,) but only getting
drunk with ale or porter, instead of
whisky and gin, which are absolute ruin
to them in mind, body, and estate.
The form of Catechism by no means
does justice to the strong good sense,
the sound morality, and the rational
piety of Dr. FAUST: Nor can it
make that strong and pleasing impres-
sion, which classical composition would
do, on readers of a cultivated taste:
But his sentiments need not the aid of
ornament: And the form of Catechism,
and his frequent, and seemingly needless,
repetitions are probably well suited to the
state and habits of those for whose use
chiefly his work is designed. They will
tend


xii PREFACE.
tend to assist the memory, and to make
the impression stronger; as well as to ena-
ble the people to apply the precepts
easily and readily. Therefore, as he
made it at first a Catechism, so let it
remain."
The Editor has only to add, that the
selection proposed has been made, and
the printing of it revised, by DR. GRE-
GORY, according to his promise.
W. C.


CONTENTS.
FIRST DIVISION.
Page.
I. Of Health; its Value, and the Duty of
preserving it; and of instructing Mankind,
particularly Children, in these important Sub-
jects,—1
II. Of the Duration of Life, and the Signs
of Health,—8
III. Of the Construction, or Structure, of the
Human Body,—12
B IV.


ii CONTENTS.
IV. On the Attending and Nursirg of In-
fants,—15
V. Of the treatment of Children with res-
pect to their Bodies, from the Third to the
Ninth or Twelfth Year,—23
VI. Of Clothes fit to be worn by Children
from the beginning of the Third to the End
of the Seventh or Eighth year; or till, in
each of the two Jaws, the four weak Milk
Teeth in front are changed for four strong
lasting teeth,—29
VII. Of Air,—41
VIII. Of Cleanliness:—Warning and Bath-
ing,—46
IX. Of Food,—52
X. Of Drink,—60
XI. Of Wine,—65
XII. Of Brandy,—67
XIII. Of Tobacco,—72
XIV. Of Exercise and Rest,—73
XV.


iii CONTENTS.
Page.
XV. Of Sleep,—78
XVI. Of the Habitations of Man,—83
XVII. Of Schools,—87
XVIII. Of Thunder and Lightning,—89
XIX. Of over-heating Ourselves, and
catching Cold,—91
XX. Of the Perservation of certain Parts
of the Human Body,—95
XXI. Of the Beauty and Perfection of the
Human Body,—103
SECOND DIVISION.
XXII. Of Diseases; Physicians, and Me-
dicines,—107
XXIII. Of the conduct to be observed by
Patients afflicted with Fevers,—116
XXIV. Of Diseases which universally pre-
vail;


iv CONTENTS.
Page.
vail; of Endemial, and of particular Mala-
dies,—129
XXV. Of Contagious Diseases,—132
XXVI. Of the Small-pox,—136
XXVII. Of the Measles,—142
XXVIII. Of the Bloody-flux, or Dysentery,—143
XXIX. Of Treatment after Diseases are
removed,—145


FIRST DIVISION.
OF HEALTH.
I. Of Health; its Value, and the Duty of pre-
serving it, and of instructing Mankind, par-
ticularly Children, in these important Sub-
jecls.
Q. 1 DEAR Children to breathe, to
live in this world, created by
God, is it an advantage? Is it to enjoy hap-
piness and pleasure?
A. Yes. To live is to enjoy happiness
and pleasure; for life is a precious gift of
the Almighty.
Ps. cl. 6. Let every thing that has
breath praise the Lord.
B3 Ps.


2 Of Health—its Value,
Ps. cxlv. 16. Thou, O Lord, satisfiest
the desire of every thing living.
Ps. xxxvi. 5, 8. Thy mercy, O Lord,
is in the heavens; and thy faithfulness.
reacheth unto the clouds. They shall be
abundanrly satisfied with the fatness of thy
house; and thou shalt make them drink
of the river of thy pleasures.
Ps. cxxxvi. 1, 8, 9, 25. O give thanks
unto, the Lord, for he is good. To him
that made the sun to rule by the day; the
moon and stars to rule by night; who gives
food to all flesh: For his mercy endureth
for ever.
Q. 2. What other proofs have we to shew
that life is an excellent gift of God?
A. The instinct, or natural anxiety of
mankind to preserve it.
Q. 3. What must be the state of the hu-
man body, the habitation and slave of the
soul, that man may enjoy a long, prosperous
and happy life?
A. It must be healthy.
Q. 4. How else can you prove that man
ought to be in a good state of health?
A. By the commandment of God,  viz.
"In


3 And duty of preserving it, &c.
"In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat
"bread." Gen. iii. 19.
Q. 5. Can we possibly promote the per-
fection and happiness of our souls, if we
do not take proper care of our bodies.
A. No. God has so intimately united
soul and body, that by a rational care taken
of the body, the happiness and purity of
the soul is increased.
Q. 6. What is understood by a state of
good health?
A. That the body is free from pains and
infirmities, fulfils its duties cheerfully and
with ease, and is always obedient to the soul.
Q. 7. How does he feel who enjoys
health?
A. Strong; full of vigour and spirits;
he relishes his meals; is not affected by wind
and weather; goes through exercise and la-
bour with ease, and feels himself always
happy.
Q. 8. And what are the sensations of the
sick? Are they like those we have described?
A. By no means; the sick man feels him-
self weak and languid; he has no appetite;
he cannot work, nor brave wind and wea-
ther;


[4]
ther; he labours under continual anxiety
and pains, and very few are the pleasures
of his life.
Q. 9. Can you children be merry and
laugh, joke, and jump about, eat, drink,
and sleep, when you are ill?
A. No We can only do so when we
are in good health.
OBSERVATION.
If a child be present who was ill not long
ago, the Master will take the oppor-
tunity of asking him the following
question:—" You was ill; tell me
did you feel yourself so happy, so easy
as you do now?" To this a sensible
child will answer, or will will be taught
to answer—"I found myself exceed-
ingly ill, I could neither eat, drink,
nor sleep; nothing afforded me plea-
sure or joy; I was full of anxiety and
pains; but now restored to health;
thanks be to God, I know it is the
greatest good."
Q. 10. The blessings of health then must
be very great?
A. They are indeed. Health is the most
precious


5 And duty of preserving it, &c.
precious good, and the most certain means
of enjoying all other blessings and pleasures
of life.
Q. 11. What says Sirach of health?
A. In the 30th Chapter, v. 14, 15, 16,
he says, "Better is the poor being found
and strong of constitution, than a rich man
that is afflicted in his body. Health and
good estate of body are above all gold, and
a strong body above infinite wealth. There
are no riches above a found body, and no
joy above the joy of the heart.
Q. 12. Cannot the sick as well as the heal-
thy, enjoy the blessings and pleasures of life?
A. No. They have no charms for the sick.
Q. 13. Of what use then is all worldly
happiness to him who is sick, and cannot
enjoy it?
A. Of very little use, if any.
Q. 14. If then health be the most preci-
ous boon of life, what duties has a man in
that respect to discharge towards himself?
A. He must strive to preserve it.
Q. 15. Is it sufficient if he take care of
his own health?
A. No. It is also his duty to take care of
the life and health of his fellow-creatures.
Q. 16.


[6]
Q. 16. And what is the duty of parents
towards their children?
A. They are bound to take the tenderest
care of their health and life.
OBSERVATION.
School-masters and parents ought to
seize every opportunity of impressing
on the minds of their children, the
great importance of the invaluable
blessings of health, and the conse-
quent duty to preserve it, by innocent
pleasures, conducive to health. They
ought on the other hand, to point out the
mournful instances of multiplied sor-
rows and miseries which present them-
selves daily to our view, in the persons
of the sick and diseased.
Q. 17. Do they fulfil this duty?
A. Very seldom.
Q. 18. Why so seldom?
A. 1. Because few of them are sensible
of the real value of health.
2. Most


[7]
2. Most of them are ignorant of the struc-
ture and state of the human body.
3. Equally ignorant of what is condu-
cive or hurtful to health.
Q. 19. What is the cause of this igno-
rance?
A. The want of proper instructions.
Q. 20. But as God wills the happiness
of all mankind, should they not be brought
from ignorance to the knowledge of truth?
A. Yes. It would be right, good, and
dutiful to instruct every body, particularly
little children like us, and to teach us the
structure of the human body, and the best
means of perserving health.
Q. 21. Is it not, therefore, your duty to
pay the greatest attention to the instructions
which you are now to receive, respecting the
most valuable boon of life?
A. We shall exert ourselves to the utmost
to understand and to remember them.
Q. 22. Is it sufficient to receive those in-
structions, and to remember them?
A. No. We should also strictly conform
ourselves to those instructions.
II.


8 Duration of Life, and
II. Of the Duration of Life, and the Signs of
Health.
Q. 23. WHAT is the usual period
of human life?
A. Life is the best gift of God to man,
who ought to enjoy it a very longtime, and
therefore live to an old age, as was in-
tended.
Ps. lxxxx. 10. The days of our life are
threescore years and ten, and by reason of
strength they be fourscore years.
Q. 24. What has God promised as the
greatest earthly reward to those that honour
father and mother, and keep his command-
ments?
A. That their days shall be long upon the
land, which the Lord our God gives them.
Q. 25. How long is man destined to en-
joy health?
A. He ought to live almost uninterrupt-
edly in a perfect state of health.
Q.


9 the Signs of Health.
Q. 26. What epithet is applied to a man
who only, at intervals, suffers little incon-
veniencies from a short illness?
A. The epithet healthy.
Q. 27. What epithet is applied to a man
who is not only weak, but also spends the
greatest part of his life on the bed of sickness?
A. The epithet unhealthy.
Q. 28. What are the signs of an unin-
terrupted state of health, enjoyed by a man
at the age of maturity?
A. The fresh and healthy colour of his
face, the quickness of his senses, the
strength of his bones, and the firmness of
his flesh; large veins full of blood; a
large and full breast; the power of breath-
ing slowly and deep without coughing;
eating with hunger, and digesting well;
taking much exercise, and bearing con-
tinued labour without fatigue; sleeping
quietly and soundly, and enjoying cheer-
fulness of mind and serenity of counte-
nance, all denote an uninterrupted state of
health.
OBSERVATION.
All aliment ought to consist of solid sub-
C stances,


10 Of the Duration of Life, and
stances, adapted to the number and
strength of the teeth; the teeth serve
chiefly for chewing: digestion, and,
of course, the nourishment, health,
strength, and happiness of a man de-
pends, in a great degree, on the chew-
ing of the solid part of the food, which
is mixed with the spittle, and converted
into a sweet milk-like fluid, called chyle:
it is, therefore, necessary that a heal-
thy man should have a sound set of
teeth.
Q. 29. Can one always and solely de-
pend upon these signs of health?
A. No. They are apt to deceive some-
times.
Q. 30. What must be done, in order,
unerringly, to ascertain whether an ap-
parently healthy man be so in reality?
A. the temperament, health, and virtu-
ous or moral conduct of his parents, ought
to be considered.
Q. 21. What ought to be the state of
health of the parents of a healthy person?
A. The father as well as the mother
ought to be strong and healthy, not de-
formed, nor subject to such diseases as may
descend to their children, such as the
King's Evil, Madness, Consumption, Epi-
lensy,

11 the Signs of Health.
lepsy, &c. They both ought to have a good
constitution, and the prospect of attaining
old age in good health, and should be of a
virtuous disposition.
Q. 32. Why is it necessary for them to
be virtuous?
A. Because the virtue of the parents is
discovered in the children, and because vir-
tuous parents encourage their children, by
their example, to endeavour to become
worthy and honourable members of soci-
ety.
Q. 33. What then must be the disposition
of those parents, who wish to bring up vir-
tuous and healthy children?
A. They must be virtuous and healthy
themselves.
III.


12. Of the Construction, or
III. Of the Construction, or Structure of the
Human Body.
Q. 34. HOW is the human body
constructed?
A. With infinite wisdom and goodness,
and in the most perfect manner.
Q, 35. What have we in particular to
observe with respect to the perfect structure
of the human body?
A. That it is endowed with the greatest
and most salutary powers, tending to pre-
serve life and health, to remove diseases, or
to heal wounds.
Q. 36. If the body contain any thing
unnatural, or if it has been wounded, or
otherwise hurt, so as to cause its functions
to be obstructed, how do those powers act?
A. They operate more or less powerfully
to expel from the body all that is unnatu-
ral, or to heal it wounds.
OB-


13 Structure of the Human Body.
OBSERVATION.
If a splinter sticks in any part of the body,
irritated nature produces matter to ex-
pel it. If the stomach be loaded with
bile, or putrid matter, nature strives
to remove it by vomiting. If a person
has broken one of his limbs, nature
will soften the broken ends of the bone,
in order that they may knit without
plaster or salve: but the previous assist-
ance of an able surgeon is required
to bring the broken ends of the bone
in contact, and to secure them so, af-
ter which tranquillity and rest are ne-
cessary.
Q. 37. Can the body, notwithstanding all
those great powers with which God has en-
dowed man, sustain any injury;
A. The healthy and vigorous man is very
seldom subject to any.
Q. 38. But as we, nevertheless, see so
many objects of pity, what may be the real
reason of their sufferings?
A. Weakness; or the want of pure vital
faculties.
Q. 39. Is this weakness natural?
C3 A.


14 Of the Construction, &c.
A. No. Naturally man is strong, full of
vigour and health.
Q. 40. How have so many contracted
this weakness?
A. Generally through their own faults,
or through ignorance.
Q. 41. Is there, not another particular
reason why men are so weak?
A. Yes. Their weakness has been here-
ditary, and transmitted to them from gene-
ration to generation.
Q. 42. What must men do, that they
may be less exposed to sickness?
A. They must do every thing to recover
their natural strength.
OBSERVATION.
By this strength, you must not under-
stand a rude but a cultivated strength,
when the body is accustomed to exer-
cise, and is full of life and vigour.
Q. 43. By what means can man recover
his natural strength?
A.


15 Attending and Nursing Infants.
A. By receiving a judicious and liberal
education, and leading a prudent life.
Q. 44. By what particular means can a
strong and healthy body be injured or ren-
dered unwholesome?
A. By a bad education, and corrupt
way of living; by intemperance in eating
and drinking; by unwholesome food and
spirituous liquors; by breathing bad or un-
wholesome air; by unclean liness; by too
great exercise, or by inactivity; by heats
and colds; by affliction, sorrow, grief, and
misery; and by many other means, the
human body may be injured, and loaded
with disease.
IV. On the Attending and Nursing of Infants.
Q. 45. WHAT does the little help-
less infant stand most in need of?
A. The love and care of his mother.
Q.


16 Attending and Nursing Infants.
Q. 46. Can this love and care be shewn
by other persons?
A. No. Nothing equals a mother's love.
Q. 47. Why does a child stand so much
in need of the love and care of his mo-
ther?
A. Because the attendance and nursing;
the tender and affectionate treatment which
a child stands in need of, can only be ex-
pected from a mother.
Q. 48. How ought infants to be attend-
ed and nursed?
A. They ought always to breathe fresh
and pure air; be kept dry and clean, and
plunged in cold water every day.
Q. 49. Why so?
A. Because children are thus, at the
time alluded to, made more placid, because
not irritated; and they grow and thrive
better.
Q. 50. Is it good to swathe a child?
A. No. Swathing is a very bad custom,
and produces in children great anxiety and
pains; it is injurious to the growth of the
body, and prevents children from being
kept clean and dry.
Q. 51. Is the rocking of children proper?
A.


17 Attending and Nursing Infants.      
A. No. It makes them uneasy, giddy,
and stupid: and is therefore as hurtful to
the soul as to the body.
Q. 52. Do children rest and sleep with-
out being rocked?
A. Yes. If they be kept continually dry
and clean, and in fresh air, they will rest
and sleep well, if not disturbed; the rock-
ing and carrying about of children is quite
useless.
OBSERVATION.
As the human soul in a state of infancy
is disturbed by rocking, carrying about
and dancing, such practices ought to
be considered as dangerous and erro-
neous.
The mother ought to play with the child
in an affectionate and gentle manner;
ought to give it frequent and mild ex-
ercise, and instil gradually into its
mind a knowledge of such objects as
attract irs notice.
Q. 53. Is it in general necessary to keep
children quiet?
A. Yes it is.
Q.

18 Attending and Nursing Infants.
Q. 54. What is therefore very bad?
A. The making a great noise about
children; and it is still worse to frighten
them.
Q. 55. It is, therefore, not advisable, I
suppose, to frighten children into sleep?
A. By no means; because they may be
thrown into convulsions by it.
Q. 56. Is it necessary or good to give
children composing draughts, or other me-
dicines that tend to promote sleep?
A. No. They cause an unnatural, and,
of course, unwholesome, sleep; and are ve-
ry hurtful and dangerous.
Q. 57. How long must a mother suckle
her child?
A. From nine to twelve months.
OBSERVATION.
In fact the child ought to be suckled till
it has two teeth in each jaw. Some
children are suckled for two or three
years; a practice not only errone-
ous, but hurtful both to mother and
child.
Q.


19 Attending and Nursing Infants.
Q. 58. What sort of aliment is prejudi-
cial to the health of children?
A. Meal-pap, pancakes, and tough,
heavy, and fat meats.
Q. 59. What harm do they do?
A. They obstruct the bowels; and chil-
dren's bellies get, by those indigestible
meals, hard and swelled.
Q. 60. What food is most suitable for
children?
A. Pure, unadulterated, new milk, and
gruel; bread or biscuit boiled with water
only, or mixed with milk.
Q. 61. Is it proper to chew the food be-
fore you give it to children?
A. No. It is disgusting and hurtful.
Q. 62. What is in general to be observed
with regard to the feeding of children?
A. That they be regularly and moderate-
ly fed, and their stomachs not loaded with
milk or other things. It is, therefore, ne-
cessary to prevent people from giving chil-
dren sweetmeats, or food out of season;
the feeding of the child ought to be entire-
ly left to its mother.
Q. 63. Do affectionate careful mothers
act


20 Attending and Nursing Infants.
act right when they take their infants with
them to bed?
A. No. It is hurtful and dangerous;
children ought, therefore, to lie by them-
selves.
OBSERVATION.
In Italy, mothers who take their suck-
lings to bed with them use a machine,
which protects them from all injury
and danger. It is called Arcuccio, and
is 3 feet 2 inches long; and the head-
board 14 inches broad, and 13 inches
high; and the sides 8 inches high.
Q. 64. Is it necessary to keep infants very
warm?
A. No. They must not be kept too warm.
Q. 65. Is it good to cover their heads?
A. By no means; it causes humours to
break out.
OBSERVATION.
From the hour of birth the head of a child
ought to be kept uncovered. Mothers
will


21 Attending and Nursing Infants.
will find that, even in the coldest night,
when they lay their hands on an infant's
head, it is always warm.
Q. 66. Children are eager to stare at
every thing, particularly at the light; what
is to be observed with regard to this?
A. They ought to be immediately turn-
ed so as to have the object in a direct line be-
fore them; they should never be suffered
to look at it side-ways, as that would cause
them to squint.                            
Q. 67. By what means is the getting of
teeth rendered difficult and dangerous?
A. By caps; by keeping the head too
warm; by uncleanliness, and improper food,
over-feeding, bad air, and want of exercise.
OBSERVATION.
Nature herself causes pains at teething
time, and the child is afterwards the
cause of many more. It may not be
amiss here to observe, 1. That pains
and sufferings are the first instructors of
man; they teach him to avoid ills, and
make him provident, companionate,
humane,
D


22 Attending and Nursing Infants.
humane, and courageous. 2. Na-
tural bodily pain, in many instances,
and particularly in childhood, is less
hurtful to man and his happiness, than
the anxiety and mortification of foul
which a child suffers that is irritated,
put in a passion, or treated with con-
tempt; and it is as bad to frighten
children.
Q. 68. What is to be observed with re-
gard to making children walk?
A. They ought not to be taught to walk
in strings, or chairs, or go-carts, or be led
by the arm; they ought to be suffered to
creep on the floor, till by degrees they learn
to walk.
Q. 69. How can we best assist children
in speaking.
A. We ought to pronounce the words to
them very distinctly and slowly; first sin-
gle founds, and then easy words
OBSERVATION.
It is of greatest importance that man,
from


23 Of the Treatment of Children.
from his earliest infancy, should be
accustomed to a distinct pronunciation.
Q. 70. What are the principal reasons
why one fourth of the number of children
that come into the world, die in the course
of the first two years?
A. Want of fresh pure air, uncleanliness,
bad indigestible food, particularly meal-pap,
the anxiety and misery of parents are also
among the causes of the death of so many
children.
V. Of the Treatment of Children with res-
pect to their Bodies, from the Third to the
Ninth or Twelfth Tear.
OBSERVATION.
FROM the third to the seventh year,
the child has 20 milk-teeth, and
during that time the body is weak;
these are changed from that period to
the twelfth year for strong teeth. In
the ninth year the child has 10 milk,
and


24 Of the Treatment of Children.
and 12 perfect teeth. In the twelfth
year both sexes have 24 strong and per-
fect teeth, and not until then the body
begins to receive its natural real
strength.
Q. 71. If man is to grow up healthy and
strong, how must he be educated?
A. He ought to receive a liberal, judi-
cious, and prudent education in his infancy,
as well as in his youth.
Q. 72. Is this of so much importance?
A. Yes; for upon that depends his
health, strength, and the happiness of his
succeeding days.
Q. 73. What is understood by a judi-
cious education?
A.That man be educated agreeably to
the nature of his soul and body.
Q. 74. What is, therefore, necessary to
be known that we may give a judicious edu-
cation to children?
A. The nature of man and of his exist-
ence.
Q. 75. What changes does man under-
go during the first nine or twelve years of
his existence?
A. His body grows and acquires shape;
his


25 Of the Treatment of Children.
his soul learns the use of the body; his facul-
ties, with regard to conception and percep-
tion, improve; and he is joyful and happy
in company with those of his own age.
Q. 76. What does nature particularly at-
tempt to effect during infancy?
A. The formation of the body.
Q. 77. Is the energy of the soul, and the
accomplishment of man, promoted by the
perfection of the body?
A. Yes; the more perfect the body is the
more perfect is the soul, and the more man
is capable of promoting his own happiness,
and that of his fellow creatures.
Q. 78. Are the natural motions or ac-
tions of any use to the body?
A. Yes; its perfection is thereby pro-
moted, and the whole body filled with life
and vigour.
Q. 79. Of what use are those sensations
to the child which its soul conceives through
the senses?
A. They are the foundation of its un-
derstanding; for the more the mind has
seen, heard, and felt, and the more distinct
its sensations are, the more sensible will man
become.
D3 Q


26 Of the Treatment of Children.
Q. 80. What particular purpose is answer-
ed by children living together?
A. They learn to know, to understand, 
and to love each other, and so lay a founda-
tion for unanimity, mutual fondness, and
the happiness of their lives.
Q. 81. But if children live in society
merry and happy together, can that have
any influence upon them when they arrive
at a state of maturity?
A. Yes; it contributes very much to
make man spend his life, according to his
destination, in virtue and happiness.
Q. 82. By what means are those wise
designs of Nature promoted?
A. By activity, and gentle, though con-
stant exercise both of the mind and body
of children.
Q. 83. Is such exercise compatible with
the nature of children?
A. Yes; children are full of vigour and
activity, sense and feeling; they are joyful
and merry, and desire to associate with other
children.
OBSER-


27 Of the Treatment of Children.
OBSERVATION.
From the twelfth to the eighteenth year
the supple body should be invigorated
by exercise and plays; the intuitive
mind, by instruction and reflection,
may lay up a store of knowledge, and
man, whose infancy was passed in joy
and happiness, learn to become virtu-
ous in his youth; and he will become
so if he has experienced the vicissitudes
of fortune, her smiles and frowns, and
shared his joys with others; if he firm-
ly believes that all the descendants of
Adam have an equal right to enjoy
pleasures, and are equally obnoxious
to pain; and that an all wise good God
created every thing good; and man-
kind, with a view of making them
happy.
Q. 84. What ought we further particu-
larly to observe with respect to children?
A. That children be suffered to exercise
their bodies and minds in company with each
other in the open air.
OB-


28 Of the Treatment of Children.
OBSERVATION.
Parents ought not only to be present at the
exercises and amusements of their chil-
dren, and guard them from all dan-
gers and injuries, but they ought also
to encourage them, and lead them to
all that is good and becoming by their
own virtuous example.
Q. 85. Ought female children to receive
the same education as boys in their infancy?
A. Yes; that they may at a future peri-
od enjoy the blessings of perfect health as
well as men.
OBSERVATION.
The most pernicious consequences to the
rising generation flow from separating
female children, at the earliest period
of their existence, from male children;
from dressing them in a different man-
ner, preventing them from taking the
same kind of exercise, and compelling
them to lead a more sedentary life.
Q.


29 Of Cloth fit to be worn by Children.
Q. 86. What are the consequences of
preventing children from taking the neces-
sary exercises before the ninth year?
A. Their growth is impeded, and they
remain weak and sickly for life.
Q. 87. What effect will it have upon
children if they are kept to too hard work
before the twelfth year?
A. They will very soon grow stiff, and
old before their time.
VI. Of Clothes fit to be worn by Children
from the beginning of the Third to the
End of the Seventh or Eighth year; or
till, in each of the two Jaws, the four
weak Milk Teeth in Front are changed
for four strong lasting teeth.
Q. 88. BY what means does man pre-
serve, particularly in his infancy, the genial
warmth of his body?
A.


30 Of Clothes fit to be worn by Children.
A. By good wholesome food and bodily
exercise.
Q. 89. Is it necessary to keep children
warm, and protect them against the incle-
mency of the weather, by many garments?
A. No.
Q. 90. Why so?
A. That the body may grow healthy and
strong, and be less liable to disease.
Q. 91. How ought the heads of children
to be kept?
A. Clean and cool.
Q. 92. Is it good to cover children's
heads with caps and hats to keep them
warm?
A. No; it is very bad; the hair is a
sufficient protection against cold.
Q. 93. Are those artificial coverings
dangerous and hurtful?
A. Yes; children are thereby rendered
simple and stupid, breed vermin, become 
scurfy, full of humours and troubled with
aches in their heads, ears, and teeth.
Q. 94. What kind of caps are, therefore
the most dangerous?
A. The woollen, cotton and fur caps.
Q.


31 Of Clothes fit to be worn by Children.
Q. 95. How, then, ought the heads of
children to be kept?
A. Boys, as well as girls, ought to re-
main uncovered, winter and summer, by
day and by night.
OBSERVATION.
Children with scurfy heads ought to keep
their heads cool, clean, and uncovered;
their, hair cut, or repeatedly combed;
which will be sufficient to cure the evil,
for to cure it with salves is a very danger-
ous custom.
Q. 96. Can the sun or air be prejudicial
to the skin?
A. No; if proper care be taken to keep
the skin clean, they can do no harm.
Q. 97. But will not children be scorched
by the sun if exposed to its heat without
being covered?
A. No; those that are accustomed from
their infancy to go uncovered, will not be
affect od by the sun.
Q. 98. How is the hair to be kept?
A.


32 Of Clothes fit to be worn by Children.
A. It ought not to be combed back-
wards, or tied behind; but it ought to
hang free round the head to protect it.
Q. 99. Ought the hair to be often
combed?
A. Yes; it ought to be kept in order and
combed repeatedly every day; which pre-
vents vermin from settling in it, and indu-
ces cheerfulness and liveliness.
Q. 100. Is it right that the collars of
shirts and neckcloths should press the neck
and its veins?
A. No; the neck ought not to be
squeezed; and, therefore, children ought
to have their necks bare.
Q. 101. How ought childrens garments
to be arranged?
A. So as not to impede the free and easy
motions of the body, or prevent the access
of the fresh strengthening air to it; they,
therefore, ought to be free, wide and
open.
Q. 102. What further is requisite for
this dress?
A. It ought to be simple, clean, light,
cool, cheap, and easy to put on or take off;
it


33 Of Clothes fit to be worn by Children.
it ought to be different in every respect from
that of older or grown-up persons.
Q. 103. What other reason is there for
making this distinction between the dress
of children and grown-up persons?
A. To induce children to live with less
restraint and greater happiness in the soci-
ety of each other; to impress upon their
minds an idea of their weak, helpless
condition, in order thereby to check the
too early ebullitions of that pride which
leads children to ape the customs and acti-
ons of grown-up persons; a practice un-
becoming at their age, and dangerous to
their health and morals.
Q. 104. How, and of what materials
ought childrens garments to be made?
A. A child ought to wear a wide linen
frock, white, with blue stripes, having
wide short sleeves, and a shirt of the same
form.
OBSERVATION.
The shape of the frock is represented in
the frontispiece of this book; it ought
E to


34 Of Clothes fit to be worn by Children.
to be without pocket-holes, and not
very long, having the sleeves of suf-
ficient length, to reach down to the el-
bows, and no farther. The collar of
the shirt to fall back over that of the
frock,—the only garment that a child
should wear over his shirt, in order
that it may move easily and without
restraint; and that the fresh air, hav-
ing free access to its body, may
strengthen it.
Q. 105. Ought children to wear this
dress in the winter time?
A. Yes; with the addition of a woollen
frock, to be worn between the shirt and the
linen frock.
Q. 106. How are the stockings of chil-
dren to be made?
A. They must be short, and not tied;
it would, therefore, be advisable to let them
only wear socks, to cover the feet in the
shoes.
OBSERVATION.
Stockings, that cover the knees, may
produce swellings in them; they
ought,


35 Of Clothes fit to be worn by Children.                                                                                                                                                                                            35 Of Clothes fit to be worn by Children.
ought, therefore, not to cover the
knees, nor be worn with garters.
Q. 107. Will not children find them-
selves too cold if their ankles are left
bare?
A. No; cold, if they are accustomed to
it, will not affect their ankles more than
their arms. It will strengthen their limbs.
In short, they will be kept sufficiently warm
by the shirt and frock.
Q. 108. What is the form of the human
foot?
A. At the toes it is broad, the heel
small, and the inside of the foot is longer
than the outside. See Fig. I.
Q. 109. Why has it this form?
A. That man may walk and stand with
ease and firmness, and move his body
freely.
Q. 110. How ought shoes, particularly
those of children, to be formed?
A. They ought to have the same form as
the feet: they, therefore, ought not to be
made by one, but two lasts, as the shape of
the feet may indicate.
OBSER-


36 Of Clothes fit to be worn by Children.
OBSERVATION.
Each foot may be laid upon a sheet of
paper, and its true shape drawn with a
pencil, after which model two separate
lasts may be made.
From Plate II. it appears clearly how
shoes ought to be shaped. The mid-
dle Fig. I. is the original shape of the
sole of the left foot; the first, Fig.
III. shows how the sole of the left shoe
ought to be formed; and the last, Fig.
II. shows clearly, that the shoes we
usually wear, made on one last, do not
at all fit.
Q. 111. Ought the shoes of children to
have heels?
A. No; heels cause the back tendon to
shrink and impede the free and easy motions
of the body in walking and running.
OBSERVATION.
In order to obtain or preserve an upright  
pos-


37 Of Clothes fit to be worn by Children.
posture or carriage of the body, and
to run and jump easily and conve-
niently, shoes without heels must be
worn.
When children are suffered to walk
much, and are bare-footed, they ac-
quire an easy and steady pace. Little
children ought not to wear shoes be-
fore the eighteenth month; if they do,
the soles  must be thin and soft, that
they may learn to walk easily and
well. Boots ought not to be worn by
children.
Q. 112. How ought, therefore, chil-
dren, male as well as female, to be dres-
sed from the beginning of the third to the
end of the seventh or eighth year?
A. Their heads and necks must be free
and bare, the body clothed with a wide
shirt and frock, with short sleeves; the feet
covered only with a pair of socks to be
worn in the shoes; the shoes ought to be
made without heels, and to fit well.
Q. 113. What benefit will be derived
from this kind of dress?
A. The body will become healthier,
stronger, taller, and more beautiful; chil-
dren will learn the best and most graceful
E3 attitudes;                                   


38 Of Clothes fit to be worn by Children.
attitudes; and will feel themselves very
well and happy in this simple and free gar-
ment.
OBSERVATION.
That by the general introduction of this
simple and easy dress, the human race
would be benefited, and rendered
every way more accomplished, cannot
be doubted. It is, therefore to be
hoped that it will be generally adopted.
Q. 114. How must the whole dress be
kept?
A. Orderly and clean. The shirt ought
always to be clean, and the frock decent,
net worn cut, or torn to pieces, or un-
clean.
Q. 115. When children appear always
combed  and washed, and in a clean shirt,
and dressed from top to toe with decency
and cleanliness, what is commonly con-
cluded from it?
A. That their parents are sensible, kind,
and loving.
Q. 116. And with respect to the children
themseIves?
A. They are beloved: the boy will be-
come


39 Of Clothes fit to be worn by Children.
come a worthy man, the girl an excellent
wife; and both imitate the example of
their parents.
Q. 117. Is it proper that grown-up per-
sons but, especially, is it proper that chil-
dren, should be dressed in an ostentatious
manner, or show any pride in their attire?
A. No; a simple, decent, clean, easy
dress is the best.
Ecclesiasticus, x. 7. Pride is hateful be-
fore God and man; and by both doth one
commit iniquity.
OBSERVATION.
Stays and stiff jackets are inventions of
the most pernicious nature; they dis-
figure the beautiful and upright shape
of a woman, and, instead of rendering
her straight, as was formerly supposed,
they make her crook-backed; they in-
jure the breast and bowels; obstruct
the breathing and digestion; hurt the
breasts and nipples so much, that ma-
ny mothers are prevented by their use
from suckling their children; many
hence get cancers, and at last lose both
health


40 Of Clothes fit to be worn by Children.
health and life; they in general destroy
health, and render the delivery of wo-
men very difficult and dangerous both
to mother and child.
It is, therefore, the duty of parents, and
especially of mothers, to banish from
their houses and families both stays and
jackets. Those girdles or sashes which
press or constrain the belly are equally
injurious; and, in general, it would
be a desirable thing, if the female dress
were made to consist of a long, easy,
and beautiful robe, and not of two
parts, joining or meeting at the hips.
Q. 118. Is it adviseable to wear clothes
that have been worn by people who were
infected by epidemic disorders, or who died
thereof; or to make dresses of them for
children?
A. No; it might cause an entire loss of
health, and, perhaps, of life.
OBSERVATION.
Old clothes, particularly old woollen
clothes, infected by unwholesome per-
spiration,


41 Of Air.
spiration, are very injurious to health;
and epidemic fevers are hence easily
and frequently propagated.
THE following Chapters regard grown-up
persons as much as children; those parts
alluding to the latter only, will be pointed
out in particular queries and answers.
VII. Of Air.
Q. 119. WHAT ought to be the
state of the air in which man liveth, and
every moment breathes?
A. The air in which man liveth, and which
he breathes, ought to be fresh, clear, and dry.
Q. 120. Why ought it to be fresh, clear,
and dry?
A. Because it tends to refresh us, and
make us healthy, composed and serene; it
encourages


42 Of Air.
encourages man to work cheerfully, excites
appetite, improves health, and induces
balmy sleep; in short, man finds himself ex-
ceedingly happy while he breathes fresh air.
Q. 121. Does he feel equally as comfort-
able when he breathes bad, foul, and damp
air?
A. No: in bad corrupted air man be-
comes weak, unhealthy, and irritable, loath-
some and stupid; it often causes fevers and
many dangerous maladies very difficult to
cure.
Q. 122. Is it very necessary that man
should live in fresh air, in order to enjoy a
perfect state of health?
A. As necessary as eating and drinking;
or as clean water is to fishes.
Q. 123. Why is it so?
A. Because the air contains, as well as
our food, vital principles, which cannot be
dispensed with, or supplied by any thing
except the air we breathe.
OBSERVATION.
Even plants in the best soil, and beasts
receiving the most wholesome food, will
decay


43 Of Air.
decay without good pure air. Man,
in particular requires fresh air, that he
may live and thrive, be healthy, sensi-
ble, serene, and happy.
Q. 124. By what means is air corrupt-
ed?
A. The air is corrupted in houses and
rooms that are not sufficiently ventilated:
beside, if in the vicinity of the habitations
of man there be morasses, or stagnant
waters, they are sufficient to corrupt the air.
Q. 125. By what other means is air ren-
dered noxious?
A. Vapours arising from damp, foul
things; the breath and perspirations of
many persons; the smoke from lamps, tallow
candles, and snuffs: the steam from ironing
linen; the exhalations that arise from comb-
ing wool, and from burning charcoal; all
tend, in a greater or less degree, to corrupt
or deprave the air, and render it capable of
impeding the action of the lungs, or induc-
ing suffocation.
Q. 126. What ought people to do that
are much confined to rooms or cham-
bers?
A. They ought frequently to open their
doors


44 Of Air.
doors and windows, in order to dissipate
corrupted air, and admit the cooling, health-
ful breezes.
Q. 127. What other method can be de-
vised to prevent the depravation of air in a
room?
A. By making two holes, one through
the outer wall of the house, that will open
into the room near the floor of it; the other
near the cieling, through the opposite in-
ner wall or partition; the external atmos-
phere will enter at the hole near the floor,
and dissipate the foul air through the aper-
ture above.
Q. What else ought people to do, to ob-
tain so desirable an end?
A. They ought to keep their rooms clean,
and in proper order; nothing superfluous,
or that can possibly corrupt the air, ought
to be suffered in them.
Q. 129. What are the signs by which
you may know whether rooms be clean, and
contain wholesome air?
A. When there are no cobwebs in the
corners, or on the cieling of the room, nor
dust, nor straw, nor filth of any kind;
when the windows are clean and clear, and
no offensive smell, or unpleasant sensation,
is


45 Of Air.
is experienced by a person who enters it
that has been just breathing the open air, we
conclude that it is as it ought to be.
Q. 130. Is it necessary for man to breathe
fresh air when asleep?
A. Yes: it is necessary that he breathe
good wholesome air, whether awake or a-
sleep: curtains encompassing a bed, and
narrow bedsteads, are therefore very un-
wholesome.
OBSERVATION.
To cover childrens faces when they are
asleep is a bad custom, for they are
thereby deprived of fresh air.
Q. 132. If people that are much confin-
ed to their rooms, were, careful to live always
in fresh air, what would be the natural
consequence?
A. Instead of being unhealthy, weak, and
squalid, and labouring under cold, and
hoarseness, they would be much more heal-
thy, content, and happy, and live longer.
OBSER-                            
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

46 Of Cleanliness, &c.
OBSERVATION.
To bury the dead in or near towns and
villages is very injurious and dangerous
to the living.
VIII. Of Cleanliness:—Washing and
Bathing.
Q. 132. OF what use is cleanliness to
man?
A. It preserves his health and virtue; it
clears his understanding, and encourages
him to activity; it procures him the esteem
of others; and none but clean people can
be really cheerful and happy.
Q. 133. How far is uncleanliness injuri-
ous to man?
A. It corrupts his health and virtue; it
stupifies his mind, and sinks it into a lethargic
state; it deprives him of the esteem and love
of


47 Of Cleanliness, &c.
of others; beside, unclean people can never
be really merry and happy.
Q. 134. Does uncleanliness cause any
maladies?
A. Yes. Uncleanliness and bad air, which
are commonly inseparable, produce fevers,
which are not only very malignant and
mortal, but contagious also.
OBSERVATION.
Doctor Ferriar, of Manchester, so re-
nowned for his humanity, proves
from the epidemical poison which
commonly originates in the huts of
misery, that net only virtue and cha-
rity, but also self-preservation, point
out to the rich that it is their duty to
relieve the poor.
Q. 135 What impels man most to keep
himself clean?
A. The being accustomed from his infan-
cy to cleanliness in his person, his dress,
and habitation.
Q. 136. What must be done to keep the
body clean?
A.


48 Of Cleanliness, &c.
A. It is not sufficient to wash the face,
hands, and feet; it is also necessary, at short
intervals, to wash the skin all over the body,
and to bathe frequently.
Q. 137. Is washing and bathing the
whole body wholesome?
A. Yes: it is very good; for it begets
cleanliness, health, strength, and ease;
and prevents catarrhs, cramps, rheumatism,
palsy, the itch, and many other maladies.
OBSERVATION.
In Russia almost every house has its bath;
and it were to be wished that each vil-
lage or town in every country contain-
ed one or more houses where people
might be accommodated with cold and
warm baths.
Q. 138. Why is the keeping the body
so clean of so great importance?
A. Because the half of whatever man
eats or drinks is evacuated by perspiration;
and if the skin is not kept clean, the pores
are stopped and perspiration consequently
prevented, to the great injury of health.
Q.


49 Of Cleanliness &c.
Q. 139. What rules are to be observed
with respect to bathing?
A. 1. That you be careful to bathe in
places where you are not exposed to dan-
ger.
A. 2. That you feel yourself thoroughly
well, and in good health, and that you be
not overheated at the time of going into the
bath, which should not be immediately af-
ter a meal.
A. 3. That you go not into the bath
slowly, and by degrees, but plunge in all at
once.
A. That after bathing you do not fit or
lie down but walk about leisurely.
OBSERVATION.
It would be very advisable to make
school-boys bathe, under the inspec-
tion of their masters, a certain number
of times each week, from the begin-
ning of May till the end of September.
Q. 140. How, often is it necessary to
wash hands and face?
A. In the morning, and going to rest;
before and after dinner and supper, and as
often as they are by any means foiled.
F2 OB-


50 Of Cleanliness, &c.
OBSERVATION.
In every house there ought to be con-
stantly ready a wash-hand bason, and
clear cold water for that purpose.
Q. 141. Is it not necessary after meals
to clean or wash the mouth?
A. Yes. Immediately after each repast
the mouth ought to be cleansed with cold wa-
ter; the gums and teeth are thus preserved
found and good, and the tooth-ach pre-
vented.
Q. 142. Ought not children to be washed
and combed before they go to school?
A. Yes. Children ought, morning and
ev ening, before they go to school, to be
combed and washed; that, being thus rent
dered comfortable and cheerful, they may
with greater ease and pleasure advance in
the paths of science and virtue.
Q. 143. What ought you particularly to
do when you wash yourself?
A. We ought always to immerse our fa-
ces in the water, and keep them so for a
little time.
OB-


51 Of Cleanliness, &c.
OBSERVATION.
Thus we accustom ourselves to restrain
our breath, which in case of danger in
the water will be found of great use.
And if we open our eyes in the water,
and clean the mouth, it will prove bene-
ficial to both, and prevent tooth-ach.
Q. 144. As it is necessary that the body
should be kept clean from the earliest in-
fancy, and as little children are not capable
of washing and attending themselves, what
duty is, therefore, imposed upon parents?
A. It is as much their duty to wash their
children as it is to feed and clothe them;
for children that are often washed improve
in health; their clothes are always clean;
cleanliness becomes familiar to them; and
they grow up virtuous, polite and happy.
Q. 145. Do little children like to be
bathed and washed?
A. In the beginning they are frightened
and cry; but if they be regularly and fre-
quently bathed, and often washed every day,
they at last take delight in it.
Q.


52 Of Food.
Q. 146. Is it sufficient that man keep
his body clean?
A. No. He must also keep his clothes
clean and all that is about him; his apart-
ments, beds, and furniture: and they ought
also to be be kept in order.
Q. 147. What benefit doth the whole
family derive from such order and cleanli-
ness?
A. It tends to preserve their health;
makes all work easy, and renders life joy-
ous and happy.
IX. Of Food.
Q. 148. WHY doth man eat?
A. To satisfy the cravings of hunger, to
preserve life, and to nourish the body.
Q. 149. What kind of food doth man
generally partake of?
A. Bread, vegetables, fruit, milk, fish,
and meat.
Q.


53 Of Food.
Q. 150. Which of these yields the
greatest nourishment?
A. Meat, or animal food, which is more
nourishing than vegetables.
Q. 151. Of What ought our meals to
consist?
A. Chiefly of vegetables.
OBSERVATION.
That man was not designed to live on
meat, or on vegetables, only, is evident
from the construction of his teeth
stomach, and bowels. Living upon
animal food only, causes putrefaction
of the blood; and vegetables by them-
selves do not sufficiently nourish or
strengthen the body.
Q. 152. What gives the most delicious
relish to food?
A. Hunger and the thorough chewing of
the food.
Q. 153. What tends most to promote
hunger and digestion?
A. Bodily exercise, especially in the open
air.
Q. 154. Is it best to eat simple food?
A.


54 Of Food.
A. Yes: It is destructive of health to
partake of many different dishes, or of such
as are prepared with much art; for they
are very difficult of digestion, and afford
bad and unwholesome nourishment.
Q. 155. What is particularly to be ob-
served at meals?
A. Order and moderation; and that the
food be well chewed, in order that it may
the more readily be converted into chyle.
OBSERVATION.
By chewing, the teeth are kept found
and fast. It is therefore necessary to
make children chew on both sides of
the mouth.
Q. 156. What does Sirach say of fruga-
lity?
A. Ecclesiasticus, xxxi. 20. he says,
"Sound sleep cometh of moderate eating:
he riseth early, and his wits are with him:
but the pains of watching, and choler, and
pangs of the belly, are with an unsatiable
man."
Q. 157. If our food be not sufficiently
chewed


55 Of Food.
chewed and converted into a pap-like sub-
stance, what is the consequence?
A. It cannot be digested sufficiently: and
undigested food yields bad nourishment to
the body—over-loads the stomach, and in-
duces a weak, morbid state of the whole
constitution.
Q. 158. Is it good to drink much at
meals ?
A. No. Too much drink renders our
food too fluid.
Q. 159. Does fluid aliment afford whole-
some and strong nourishment?
A. No. Food of whatever kind, in or-
der that it may afford proper nourishment,
ought to be substantial; it is therefore neces-
sary to eat bread with fluid aliment.
OBSERVATION.
Even the milk which the child sucks,
must first curdle in the stomach before
it can give any nourishment to the
body.
Q. 160. As bread is our principal food,
what ought to be its qualities?
A.


56 Of Food.
A. It ought to be made from good corn,
and well baked.
Q. 161. Is hot bread or cakes whole-
some?
A. No. They are very unwholesome:—
they may cause sickness and death.
Q. 162. Are potatoes wholesome?
A. Yes: and very nourishing.
Q. 163. Are ripe fruits and acid substan-
ces wholesome?
A. Yes: they cleanse and refresh the
body.
OBSERVATION.
With respect to the stones of fruits,
children ought to be cautioned not to
swallow them, as they may cause an
obstruction in the bowels, and conse-
quent death.
Q. 164. Are fat meats wholesome? and
is it good to give much butter to children?
A. No; it is not good. Butter and all
fat aliments are difficult of digestion; and
prejudical to health.
Q. 165. Is dried, smoked, salted or high-
seasoned meat wholesome?
A.


57 Of Food.
A. No; it is unwholesome; and chil-
dren ought not to eat such meats.
Q. 166. What is in general to be ob-
served with respect to the feeding of chil-
dren?
A. They ought to be fed regularly every
day at stated times; their food ought to be
mild and nourishing, that they may grow
and thrive well.
Q. 167. Is it good to give children dain-
ties, cakes, or sweetmeats?
A. No. Children are thereby rendered
too fond of their bellies, become gluttons,
and degenerate from the dignity of their
nature.
OBSERVATION.
Sweetmeats, and all the toys of children,
are commonly covered will poisonous
paint: they therefore ought to be pro-
hibited.
Q. 168. What is the state of the kitch-
en of a good orderly wife or housekeeper?
A. The kitchen furniture is always kept
clean by scouring and washing; after any
part of it has been used, it is immediately
washed, and dried with a clean cloth, and
G put



58 Of Food.
put up in its proper place; and when it is
wanted again, it is first of all dusted and
rubbed well.
Q. 169. What is especially to be observ-
ed with respect to the preparing and keep-
ing of victuals?
A. The greatest cleanliness; and the
catables ought neither to be prepared nor
kept in improper vessels, or such as can
communicate to them any poisonous quali-
ty.
Q. 170. Ought every thing first to be
washed before it is boiled or roasted?
A. Yes. Every kind of food, whether
animal or vegetable, ought to be well washed
before it is boiled or roasted; and vegeta-
bles especially require washing to remove
mildew or infects.
Q. 171. What sort of kitchen utensils
may become noxious?
A. Those of copper which are not per-
fectly well tinned, and earthen vessels which
are glazed with lead.
OBSERVATION.
Farthen vessels receive a varnish of sand
and


59 Of Food.
and prepared lead; which acids will
dissolve and communicate a deleterious
impregnation to food.
Q. 172. If acescent food, especially, be
prepared and kept, or suffered to cool, in
such vessels, what are the consequences?
A. It dissolves and mixes with part of the
lead or copper, and so becomes capable, if
eaten, of producing gradual loss of health:
or sudden death may be the unavoidable
consequence.
Q. 173. What is therefore to be observ-
ed with respect to those vessels?
A. Those of copper ought to be well
tinned; those of earth must have a very
hard and durable varnish, consisting of but
little lead, and ought to be well seasoned by
keeping them a proper time immersed in
boiling water, in which pot-ashes have been
dissolved; and neither the copper nor the
earthen vessels ought to be used for cooling
or keeping victuals.
Q. 174. Are pewter vessels also danger-
ous in this respect?
A. They are. Pewter is mixed with a
great deal of lead; and therefore victuals
ought not to be kept in vessels of this kind.
Q.


60 On Drink.
Q. 175. What kind of water ought to
be used for the boiling of victuals?
A. Not only for boiling victuals, but for
baking and brewing, clean soft water is re-
quired, in which dry peas can be boiled soft.
X. On Drink.
Q. 176. FOR what purpose is it ne-
cessary that man should drink?
A. To quench his thirst; but not to gra-
tify his palate, or to strengthen his stomach,
or with a view hence to nourish him; for
all such notions are wrong, and against na-
ture.
Q. 177. What kind of beverage there-
fore is the most proper?
A. Cold water.
Q. 178. What advantage do we derive
from drinking cold water?
A.


61 On Drink.
A. Cold water cools, thins, and clears the
blood: it keeps the stomach, bowels, head,
and nerves in order, and makes man tran-
quil, serene, and cheerful.
Q. 179. What is it that gives to cold
water an agreeable taste, and renders it nou-
rish in?
A. Bodily exercise in the open air not
only induces thirst and a desire for water,
but also renders it nourishing.
OBSERVATION.
By the movement of the body, water is
caused to mix thoroughly with the
blood, whose viscid, sharp, and acrid
humours it expels from the body.
Q. 180. Do people commonly drink a
sufficient quantity of cold water?
A. No. Many, from not taking suffici-
ent exercise in the open air, and from
drinking frequently large quantities of
warm drink, lose all real thirst; and, from
not drinking a sufficient quantity of cold
water, their blood remains viscid, acrid,
and impure.
G2 OB-



62 On Drink.
OBSERVATION.
Women, in particular, that are much
confined at home, drink a great deal
of coffee and tea, but do not drink
enough of cold water.
Q. 181. May we drink any water with-
out distinction?
A. No. We ought not to drink stag-
nant, unclean, muddy, or putrisied water.
OBSERVATION.
If one be under the unavoidable necessity
of drinking bad or foul water, a little
vinegar may be mix with it, which is
the best corrector of it.
Q. 182. What kind of water is the best
for drinking?
A. Pure, clear water, without, taste, smell
or colour;—water in which soap will readi-
ly dissolve, and peas readily soften, if boiled
in it.
OB-


63 On Drink.
OBSERVATION.
The old Romans made aqueducts of such
a length, that five, ten, or more hours,
would be consumed in walking from
one extremity to the other of some of
them; and they did so in order to fur-
nish populous places with good whole-
some water for drinking?
Q. 183. Is beer a wholesome beverage?
A. Light, web-brewed beer is not injuri-
ous to the health of grown-up persons;
though certainly good water is much better,
and more wholesome.
OBSERVATION.
Children, by drinking beer, lose the de-
sire of drinking water, and so steal in-
to the habit of drinking too much
coffee, tea, wine, and brandy.
Q. 184. Are warm drinks, such as cof-
fee, tea, &c. wholesome?
A. No. The only wholesome beverage
is cold water; all warm drinks weaken the
stomach


64 On Drink.
stomach and body; they do not cleanse the
bowels, nor purify the blood, and are,
therefore, unwholesome and hurtful to
health.
Q. 185. Why are people, particularly
women, so fond of tea and coffee?
A. Because, for want of exercise, they
have no natural or real thirst; and because
they have been used to them from their in-
fancy.
OBSERVATION.
If water were the only drink of man,
both his health and fortune would be
improved. If what is spent on liquors
that are hurtful to life were appropri-
ated to the purchase of nourishing
food, and other necessaries of life, the
lot of humankind would be better, and
we should live longer, and be healthier,
stronger, and happier.
Q. 186. What, then, ought to be the
only beverage for children?
A. Pure, good cold water ought to be
the only drink of children and young folks;
who


65 Of Wine
who ought to be prohibited from drinking
beer, coffee, tea, or other warm liquors.
Q. 187. What advantage do children
and young persons derive from drinking
cold water only?
A. They grow, and are nourished, much
better, and become healthier, stronger, and
happier.
XI. Of Wine.
Q. 188. IS wine wholesome, when
drunk often, or as a common beverage?
A. No; it is not. Wine is very hurt-
ful to the health, the intellects, and the
happiness of man.
Q. 189. Wine, as a medical potion,
comforts the sick, and strengthens the weak;
but does it afford any real strength or nour-
ishment to the healthy?
A. No; it only over-heats, without, pro-
curing


66 Of Wine.
curing real strength; for it cannot be con-
verted into good blood, flesh, or bone.
Q. 190. Does wine contribute to the
digestion of our meals?
A. No; it does not. Those that drink
water eat with a better appetite, and digest
better than those that drink wine.
Q. 191. What consequences ensue from
drinking wine continually?
A. The tongue loses its delicacy of taste,
and rejects water and mild simple food;
the stomach grows cold and loses its natu-
ral vigour, and man, under the false idea
of giving warmth to his stomach, gains by
degrees a passion for drinking, which leads
him at last to habitual drunkenness.
OBSERVATION.
Wine adulterated with any preparation
of lead, as sugar of lead, white lead,
&c. is poison.
Q. 192. May children drink wine, punch,
or other spirituous intoxicating liquors?
A. No. Children and young persons ought
not


67 Of Brandy. 
not. to drink wine, or any other spiritous
liquors; for they are hurtful to health, im-
pede growth, obscure reason, and lay a
foundation for future wretchedness.
Q. 193. Does wine expel worms?
A. No; it does not.
XII. Of Brandy.
OBSERVATION.
VEGETATION has united and in-
corporated in the corn, by means of
air and water, spiritous and earthy ele-
ments, which combined form a sweet
and nourishing substance; if this inti-
mate junction is destroyed or resolved
by fermentation, the spiritous part is
separated from the earthy, which is
then deprived of its body, and is no
longer


68 Of Brandy.
longer a sweet nourishing substance;
it is fiery, and destroys like fire.
Q. 194. Is brandy a good liquor?
A. No. 
ADDRESS TO CHILDREN.
Children, brandy is a bad liquor. A few
hundred years ago brandy was not
known among us. About 1000 years
ago, the destructive art of distilling
spirits of wine from wine was found
out; and 300 years ago, brandy was
first distilled from corn. In the be-
ginning it was considered as physic.
It did not, however, come into gene-
ral use till the close of the last century,
or rather till within the last thirty
years, that it has become an universal
beverage, to the great detriment of
mankind.
Our forefathers in former times, who
had no idea of brandy, were quite
different people from what we are;
they were much more healthy and
strong. Brandy, whether drunk by
itself, or at meals, cannot be con-
verted into blood, flesh, or bone;
consequently,


69 Of Brandy.
consequently, it cannot give health or
strength, nor does it promote diges-
tion: it only makes one unhealthy,
stupid, lazy, and weak. It is, there-
fore, a downright falsehood, that
brandy, as a common beverage, is use-
ful, good, and necessary. Our fore-
fathers lived well without it. And as
experience teaches us, that even the
most moderate, and most reasonable,
give way to the baneful custom of
drinking every day more and more
brandy, it is much better, in order to
avoid temptation, to drink none at all;
for, believe me, children, brandy de-
prives all who addict themselves to the
immoderate and daily use of it—of
health, reason, and virtue, it impels
us to quit our house and home, to
abandon our wives and children, and
entails on its wretched votaries, mi-
sery and disease, which may descend
to the third and fourth generation.
It has been observed in all countries, in
England, Scotland, Sweden, North
America, and  Germany, that in pro-
portion to the quantity of brandy con-
sumed, were the evils which health,
H strength,


70 Of Brandy.
strength, reason, virtue, industry, prospe-
rity, domestic and matrimonial felicity,
the education of children, humanity,
and the life of man had to encounter.
It was this that induced an Indian in
North America, of the name of
Lackawanna, to say, that the brandy
which had been introduced amongst
the Indians by the English, tended
to corrupt mankind and destroy hu-
manity. "They have given us (said
“he) brandy! and who has given it to
"them (Europeans,) who else but an
evil spirit."
Q. 195. Tell me, therefore, dear chil-
dren, may children drink brandy?
A. No, by no means; children must
not only abstain from brandy, but also
from rum, gin, whisky, and all other spi-
rituous liquors.
ADMONITION.
It is true, that children must not drink
brandy, not even a single drop, for
brandy deprives children of their
health and reason, of their virtue and
happiness. When, therefore, dear
children,


71 Of Brandy.
children, your parents, who, perhaps,
do not know that brandy corrupts
both body and foul, shall offer you
any spirituous liquors, do not accept it,
do not drink it.
Q. 196. Tell me now, what becomes
of children that drink spirituous liquors?
A. Children and young persons who
drink brandy, or other spiritous liquors,
become unhealthy, crippled, stupid, rude,
lazy, vicious, and depraved, both as to
mind and body.
Q. 197. Doth brandy, or any other
spirituous liquor, destroy, or prevent worms
in the bowels.
A. No.
EXHOPTATION.
Fathers and mothers, if you wish to
obtain the blessing of the Almighty in
an especial manner—if you aspire after
heavenly rewards, take care not to
suffer your children to drink of spiritu-
ous liquors, not even a single drop.
XIII.


72 Of Tobacco.
XIII. Of Tobacco.
Q. 198. IS the smoking of tobacco
good?
A. No; it is not good, for much of the
spittle, which is necessary for digestion is
thereby lost, and it is hurtful to health, to
the teeth, and to the organs of taste.
OBSERVATION.
The chewing of tobacco is equally per-
nicious.
Q. 199. May children and young people
smoke tobacco?
A. No; children and youth must not
smoke at all.
Q. 200. Is the takings of snuff proper?
A. No; it is a very bad custom, as the
nose through which man breathes is stuffed
up by it, the important sense of smell de-
stroyed, and uncleanliness and loss of
health induced by its use.
XIV.


73 Of Exercise and Rest.
XIV. Of Exercise and Rest.
Q. 201. WHAT advantage doth
man derive from bodily exercise, activity,
and labour?
A. Bodily exercise, particularly in the
open air, creates hunger and thirst, helps
the digestion of our food, and makes it
nourshing; it purifies the blood, keeps the
bowels healthy, and causes rest and found
sleep.
Ecclesiasticus xxx. 18. "To labour and
"to be content with that which a man hath
"is a sweet life, but he that findeth a trea-
"sure is above them both."
Q. 202 Can any body remain in a good
state of health, without much bodily ex-
ercise?
A. No; God has given to man, not with-
out a wise design, a body, hands, and feet:
he is to make use of them and labour, and
through labour to preserve life and health,
to promote his own happiness, and that of
his fellow-creatures.
H3 Q.



74 Of Exercise and Rest.
Q. 203. But cannot exercise and labour
hurt a man?
A. By all means: If man exceeds the
bounds of reason, and of his natural powers,
he may hurt himself.
OBSERVATION.
It is computed, that in Germany, 300,000
persons of the male sex are afflicted with
ruptures.—What is the reason that
people are so liable to ruptures? I be-
lieve that ruptures will be far less fre-
quent, will scarcely be met with, when
the custom of dressing male children
in frocks, such as I have described, is
introduced, and when the muscles and
tendons of the bell are strengthened
by unrestrained exercise and fresh air.
If a man works continually and too
hard, his body will be debilitated and
worn out, or a rupture may soon be
the consequence.
Q. 204. Is it good to take much exer-
cise, or work hard immediately before or
after dinner?
A.


75 Of Exercise and Rest.
A. No; a little rest before and after din-
ner is necessary, and promotes appetite and
digestion, recruits the powers of the body,
and fits it for future work.
Q. 205. What kind of exercise is pro-
per for children?
A. Gentle, varied, and continued exer-
cise in the open air, during the greater part
of the day.
OBSERVATION.
A child ought to take a great deal of ex-
ercise of the gentlest kind. It is not
good to oblige children to lead a se-
dentary life, or to do too much or
too heavy work, or to study hard;
after the shedding of the teeth, in the
twelfth year, when they have twenty-
four strong teeth, when soul and body
have acquired sufficient strength and
vigour, the time of instruction and
work should begin, but not before,
lest mind and body be injured.
Q. 206. How doth man become very
active and industrious?
A.


76 Of Exercise and Rest.
A. By being left during his childhood
to exercise, unrestrained, with other chil-
dren, and by being carefully encouraged
to activity, assiduity, industry, and think-
ing; by being taught to do such work as is
proportioned to the strength of his body,
and accustomed to do every thing with due
consideration and in time, and not to post-
pone till to-morrow, what should be done
to-day.
Ecclesiastes ix. 10. "Whatsoever thy
hand findeth to do, do it with thy might;
for there is no work, nor device, nor know-
ledge, nor wisdom in the grave, whither
thou goest.”
Q. 207. What advantages arise from ac-
customing children to moderate or easy
work?
A. It renders them, when grown up,
useful to themselves and to their fellow-
creatures; it will prevent them from mix-
ing in bad company, and will banish want
and misery from their doors.
Prov. x. 4. "He becometh poor that
dealeth with a slack hand, but the hand of
the diligent maketh rich."
Q. 208. After man has laboured, and
finished his work, what then doth he do?
A.


77 Of Exercise and Rest.
A. He rests himself, and looks with plea-
sure upon the fruits of his industry.
Q. 209. But would he rest as well if he
had not laboured, or had not been industri-
ous?
A. No. Peace, rest, and joy, are the
exclusive enjoyments of him who has done
his duty, who has worked and promoted
his own happiness, and that of his fellow-
creatures.
ADMONITION, or ADDRESS to CHILDREN.
Dear children! he who owes his birth
and education to healthy, strong, sen-
sible, virtuous, and industrious pa-
rents, who, from his infancy, has
constantly breathed fresh, pure, and
dry air; whose skin and apparel are
always kept clean; who, with regard
to his meals, observes moderation and
order, and drinks no brandy or other
spirituous liquors; whose habitation
is orderly, clean, dry, and lightsome;
who has been accustomed from his in-
fancy to order and cleanliness, to assi-
duity and industry, and whose reason
and virtue have been fortified and
improved


78 Of Sleep.
improved in his youth by instruction
and example; who fears God, loves
mankind, and does justice; who works
six days out of seven for the mainte-
nance of his wife and children: he
only enjoys terrestrial bliss; he is truly
happy, and may, anticipating the joys
of eternal felicity, brave all the hor-
rors of death.
XV. Of Sleep.
Q. 210 FOR what purpose doth man
go to sleep?
A. To rest himself after exercise and la-
bour, and regain the strength of his body,
and the faculties of his mind.
Q. 211. How do the healthy rest?
A. Their rest is quiet, refreshing, and
without dreams.
Q. 212. When especially do the healthy
enjoy a quiet and refreshing sleep?
A.


79 Of Sleep.
A. When their bodies are wearied by
much exercise in the open air; when they
have satisfied hunger, and when their minds
enjoy contentment and peace.
Q, 213. Doth much depend upon a
sound sleep?
A. Yes; man after a nights balmy sleep
awakes with delight and cheerfulness, finds
himself quite happy, and full of vigour and
desire for labour.
Q. 214. What time is particularly pro-
per for sleep?
A. The night; for in the day time we do
not sleep so well.
OBSERVATION.
Little children and people who are either
sick, or weak, or very much tired, and
the old and infirm, are to be except-
ed, as they very often sleep in the
day-time.
Q. 215. Ought children to sleep much?
A. Yes: children and young people that
are constantly in motion when awake, ought
to sleep more than grown people.
Q.


80 Of Sleep.
Q. 216. Cannot we sleep too much, and
so injure our health?
A. Yes; when we have not had much
exercise in the open air, and consequently
are not tired, and when we, during our
sleep, breathe corrupted air, or lie in warm
feather-beds, we find ourselves after some
time lazy, stupid, and unhealthy.
Q. 217. Ought we to sleep in cool,
fresh, and clean air?
A. Yes. And it therefore behoves us
not to sleep in warm fitting rooms, but in
cool, lofty roomy chambers, that have
fresh air; whose windows are kept open in
the day time; and in beds without curtains,
or with curtains not to be drawn.
Q. 218. Is it wholesome to lie on, or un-
der feather-beds?
A. No. Is it very unwholesome. Fea-
ther-beds by their warmth, by the noxious,
impure, putrid exhalations, which they at-
tract, render the body weak and unhealthy;
and besides, are the cause of catarrhs, head,
tooth, and ear aches—of rheumatism, and
of many other maladies.
Q.


81 Of Sleep.
Q. 219. What kind of bed is fittest for
grownup persons?
A. Matrasses stuffed with horse hair, or
straw, covered with a blanket or quilt.—
But when people sleep in feather-beds, they
ought to air and beat them well in summer
time once a week, and in winter once in a
fortnight, and often change their bed-linen.
Q. 220. What sort of bedding is proper
for children?
A. Matrasses stuffed with straw, or moss
well dried, which requires often to be
changed.
Q. 221. Why ought they to lie on such
beds?
A. Because it will contribute to the health,
and promote the strength of children; and
because feather-beds are more injurious to
the health of children than to that of
adults.
Q. 222. What is farther to be observed
with respec to sleep?
A. We ought not to lie down till we are
tired, nor remain in bed after we wake in
the morning.
Q. 223. Ought the head and breast to be
laid higher in bed than any other part of the
body?
I A.


82 Of Sleep.
A. No; nor ought we to lie on our
backs, but alternately on either side, in a
somewhat bended position, taking care not
to fold our arms round our heads.
Q. 224. Is it proper for children to sleep
in the same bed with grown-up persons, or
ought several children to lie together?
A. No. Such practices are very hurtful;
for the breath and exhalations consist of
noxious vapours; it is therefore advisable
for every child and every grown person to
lie alone, in order to enjoy sound sleep.
Q. 225. What is to be done with beds
in which sick people have lain?
A. They are for many days to be well
aired and beaten; but if the disease has
been contagious, the bed ought to be burnt,
or buried deep in the ground.
OBSERVATION.
An English army physician, Doctor
Brocklesby, says, that a bed on which
a person died of the putrid sore throat,
was the cause of the death of three
others that slept in it after him. What
travelling


83 Of the Habitations of Man.
travelling, one ought to be very careful and
particular with respect to beds.
XVI. Of the Habitations of Man.
Q. 226. WHAT advantages ought
our habitations and apartments to possess?
A. They ought to be very lightsome and
airy.
Q. 227. When habitations are dark, fusty,
and damp, what effect do they produce on
those that live in them?
A. People in such habitations are render-
ed unhealthy and weak, paralytic and sick;
they grow stupid, simple, ill-natured, and
miserable; and little children grow pale in
damp rooms; they swell, become consump-
tive, and die.
Q. 228. When may rooms be considered
as fusty and damp?
A. When they lie deep in the ground;
when the walls and the floor are wet or
damp,


84 Of the Habitations of Man.
damp, and when the furniture or other
things grow mouldy.
Q. 229. How can such rooms be im-
proved?
A. By the repeated and daily admission
of fresh air into them; or, what is still
better, by holes made in the two opposite
walls of the house, one near the floor,
through which the external air constantly
passes, and the foul air expels through the
hole made near the ceiling.
Q. 230. Ought rooms and chambers to
be lofty and spacious?
A. Yes; the more lofty and spacious
they are, the less liable will the air be to
corruption.
Q. 231. How often ought they to be
swept and cleaned?
A.  All inhabited rooms and chambers
ought to be cleaned every day.
Q. 232. Why so often?
A. Because it is wholesome and good;
and because decent people like to live in
clean apartments.
Q. 233. But is it good to fit in very warm
rooms in winter time?
A. No. Very warm rooms are very un-
wholesome,


85 Of the Habitations of Man.
wholesome, and make people weak, sim-
ple, stupid, and sick.
Q. 234. Is it adviseable to warm our-
selves over charcoal, or to fit in rooms
where it is burning?
A. No. Itsva pours produce a great de-
pression of spirits, and sometimes suffocate
people.
OBSERVATION.
Those little stoves used by women in
Germany and Holland to put their feet
on, are very dangerous.
Q. 235. Is it wholesome to dry clothes
in rooms, or boil water in ovens, where the
steam cannot ascend as in a chimney?
A. No. Damp vapours corrupt the air
very much, and are therefore unwholesome.
Q. 236. If one be very much chilled in
winter, may he immediately approach the
fire, or a hot stove?
A. No; for chilblains are produced by
exposure to heat after intense cold.
I2 OB-
 


86 Of the Habitations of Man.
OBSERVATION.
Dipping the hands often in hot water,
and sudden transitions from heat to
cold, and cold to heat, produce ul-
cers on the fingers, called in Germany
"the worm."
Q. 237. When a limb, as an arm or leg,
is frost-bitten, what is best to be done?
A. In such a ease if the patient enters a
warm room, or approaches the fire, the
loss of the arm or leg will be the conse-
quence; the part affected should be kept in
cold water, in which snow or ice was dis-
solved, till numbness be removed, and till
life and sensation are restored.
OBSERVATION.
In cold winter days, if we travel or walk
about in the country, it is necessary
that we be particularly careful not to
drink any brandy or other spiritous li-
quor, as it only tends to induce weari-
ness and sleep, the more to be
dreaded, 


87 Of Schools.
dreaded, as it may last till death is
produced.
Q. 238. What ought to be the state of
rooms in which children live?
A. Their apartments ought to be light-
some and airy, and to be kept orderly and
clean; for in such rooms children will thrive
surprisingly, and become healthy, strong,
and cheerful.
XVII. Of Schools.
Q. 239. WHAT ought to be the
site and state of a school-house?
A. It ought to be built in a free, open,
and high situation; to be dry, roomy, and
in a good habitable condition.
Q. 240. What ought to be the state of
school-rooms?
A. They ought to be lightsome, airy,
large, high, and dry, having floors above the
surface 



88 Of Schools.
surface of the earth, not made of clay or
stone, but of deal.
Q. 241. Are narrow, low, damp, dirty,
dark rooms, which exclude the fresh air,
unwholesome?
A. Yes; they are very unwholesome;—
unfavourable to the studies and intellectual
improvement of children, and to their mor-
als.
OBSERVATION.
If men were sensible of thefe truths, they
would feel an irresistible impulse to
unite,like so many bees in a hive, for
the laudable purpose of promoting the
general good—of erecting and esta-
blishing for the benefit of their dear
children, healthy and spacious school-
houses. They would be rewarded ten-
fold for their expences by the benign
influence such institutions would have
in promoting the happiness of their
off spring.
Q. 242. How ought school-rooms to be
kept
A. 


89 Of Thunder and Lightning.
A. Orderly and clean, light and airy;
taking care to open the doors and windows
several times a day, in winter as well as in
summer, for the admission of pure air; and
not to keep too great fires in them.
XVIII. Of Thunder and Lightning.
Q. 243. HOW are people to conduct
themselves in thunder-ftorms, when they
are in the fields?
A. They are not to run, or trot, or gal-
lop, or stand still, but keep on walking or
riding quietly, slowly, and without fear.
OBSERVATION.
Here the school-master is to explain to
the children the nature and causes of
thunder 


90 Of Thunder and Lightning.
thunder and lightning, in order to
prevent those fears and false impressions
which are made upon the human mind
when children are suffered to form
erroneous notions of them.
Herds or flocks in thunder-storms ought
not to be driven, hunted, or over-
heated, or suffered to stand still, or
assemble close together; they ought
to be separated, and divided into small
numbers; and people should take care
not to come too near to them.
Q. 244. May one shelter himself in a
thunder storm under a tree?
A. No; it is very dangerous. Trees and
vapours which encompass them, attract the
lightning, and persons standing under them
are in the utmost danger of their lives.
Q. 245. You are right, children, in ob-
serving that when thunder and lightning
prevail one should not take shelter uder
trees; and the higher the tree, the greater
is the danger; but, what precautions are
people to take when at home during a thun-
der storm?
A. They are, when the storm is still at a
distance, to open the doors and windows
of


91 Of over-heating Ourselves, &c.
of their rooms, chambers, and stables, in
order to expel all vapours, and fill them
with fresh air. When it draws nearer, the
windows are to be shut, and the doors left
open, that fresh air may be admitted, avoid-
ing carefully a free stream of air. They
are, further, to keep at a proper distance
from walls, chimneys, and ovens, and from
all iron and metal, in particular from long
iron rods or wires; remaining, as to any
thing else, composed and without fear.
XIX. Of Over-heating Ourselves, and
catching Cold.
Q. 246. IF, thro' violent bodily exercise,
labour, running, or dancing, we have over-
heated ourselves, what ought we not to
do?
A. We ought not immediately to fit
down or rest ourselves.
2. Drinking immediately after such vio-
lent


92 Of over-heating Ourselves, &c.
lent exercise any thing cold, or even brandy
or other spirituous liquor, is highly impro-
per.
3. We ought not to expose bur bare skin
to the cold air.
4. We ought not to go into the cold
bath: when thoroughly wet from rain, it
is proper to walk about.
5. We ought not to sit down on the
ground, or on the grass; and we should be
particularly careful not to fall asleep, other-
wise sickness, lameness, or perhaps con-
sumption, will be the fatal consequences.
OBSERVATION.
When people go home from their labour
in the field, particularly in the evening,
in cool, damp air, they ought always
first to put on their clothes, and not
return in their shirts.
Q. 247. What else are we to attend to?
A. Those that are over-heated, are by
very slow degrees to suffer themselves to
cool, and enjoy rest; and dry and clean
shirts and clothes are to be substituted for
those.


93 Of over-heating Ourselves, &c.
those that have been wet by sweat. When
cool and composed we may gradually drink
to, satisfy thirst.
Q. 248. If people during work are very
thirsty, may they not refresh themselves
with some cold drink?
A. Yes, they may; but they must not
drink too much at once, nor leave off
working and rest themselves, but continue
their labour, else they will take cold and
fall sick.
Q. 249. What are those to do who have
caught cold from cold and damp wind and
weather?
A. They are to drink a few cups of boiled
water mixed with a fourth part of vinegar,
put on warm clothes, and, by exercise,
force the blood back to the skin. When
the cold is violent they are to bathe their
feet in warm water, drink vinegar and water
and go to bed.
OBSERVATION.
It is very unwholesome to drink spiritu-
ous liquors, or heating medicines to
induce sweat.
Q. 250. What are we to do if our feet
or bodies be wet and cold?
K A.



94 Of over-heating Ourselves, &c.
A. We are to take off the wet stockings
or clothes, lest they should cause a catarrh,
the palsy or rheumatism.
Q. 251. But what else ought to be done?
A. As soon as a person under such cir-
cumstances returns home, he ought not
only to take off the wet clothes, but wash
and dry his skin well, and put on warm
clothes.
Q. 252. How do people by slow degrees
get catarrhs, palsy, rhuematism, and other
maladies?
A. By the obstruction of the perspiration
of the whole, or a part, of the body, oc-
casioned by want of exercise, by wet or
damp rooms or beds, wet clothes and ex-
posure to cold air.
Q. 253. Tell me how a person may
catch cold?
A. When a person, for instance, leans
with his arm against a damp wall, or, what
is still worse, falls asleep in that position,
or that the part is exposed to a stream of
air, that part will be attacked by rheuma-
tism or palsy, or catarrh will be produced.
Q. 254. How may catarrhs and rheuma-
tisms be prevented?
A.


95 Of the Preservation of the Human Body.
A. They may be prevented by keeping
the skin constantly cold, clean, and strong;
by exposing it to pure air; by washing and
bathing when the body is not kept too warm
by unnecessary clothes, and by much exer-
cise in the open air.
XX. Of the Preservation of certain Parts of
the Human Body.
Q. 255. WHICH are the parts of
the human body that man should take par-
ticular care to preserve in a good state of
health?
A. The organs of his five senses?
Q. 256. By what means are the organs
of light, hearing, and smelling, preserved
healthy, improved, and strengthened?
A. By free, pure air, and very frequent
exercise in open air, rather than in confined
places.
Q. 257. What is in general very hurt-
ful to those three senses?
A.

96 Of the Preservation of the Human Body.
A. The unnecessary care of keeping the
head warm by caps or other coverings.
OBSERVATION.
The baneful consequences which arise
from covering the head, or keeping it
too warm, are ulcers, scabs, boils, and
lice, which lay the foundation of evils
to the human race, greater than can be
calculated.
Q. 258. Flow may the eyes be injured?
A. By dazzling, irregular, and transient
lights; by objects brought too near the
light, or viewed sideways; by corrupted
air, dust, smoke, damp vapours, the fat,
sharp fumes of oil or candles; by the heat
of ovens, and reading without sufficient
light.
Q. 259. What hurts the heating?
A. Strong, sharp, unexpected sounds or
reports, corrupted air, feather beds, dust,
too much snot in the nose, and pressure on
the external ear, forcing it too near to the
head.
OB-


97 Of the Preservation of the Human Body.
OBSERVATION.
That the sense of hearing may be quick
and distinct, the external ear should
project sufficiently from the head, and
be moveable; but this is prevented by
the close-caps, which young children
wear.
Q. 260. How are the organs of smell
injured?
A. By corrupted air; by strong and foul
odours; by snot in the nose, or snuff ob-
tructing the nostrils, and obliging us to
breathe through the mouth.
Q. 261. By what means is the organ of
taste preserved?
A. By exercise; by the use of water,
and mild plain food.
Q. 262. How may the organ of feeling
be preserved?
A. By the exercise of the faculty of feel-
ing—by the exercise of the body, and by
cleanliness.
Q. 263. Are the common exercises of
the senses sufficient to render them perfect?
K3 A.


98 Of the Preservation of the Human Body.
A. No. The senses require to be inces-
santly exercised that they may become per-
fect, and capable of directing and uphold-
ing us amidst the wanderings of a disorder-
ed imagination, whose phantoms vanish be-
fore the torch of reason.
OBSERVATION.
Our sight and hearing, if not sufficiently
improved, may deceive us during the
night, or when the mental faculties
are impaired by fear or prejudice:
hence the origin of the absurd belief
in spectres. But if our senses be ren-
dered, perfect; if we approach, and
courageously endeavour to touch what-
ever imagination conjures up to our
view, and if we explore whatever
place a noise issues from, we shall soon
be delivered from our delusion, and
from the belief in the existence of
spectres, witches, and all such absur-
dities. Those who tell stories of spec-
tres to children, with a view to fright-
en them, are highly reprehensible;
and should be excluded from all share
in the education of youth.
Q.


99 Of the Preservation of the Human Body.
Q. 265. How can a good, intelligible
pronunciation be obtained?
A. By keeping the mouth and the nose
clean, the neck free and uncovered, and
obliging children to accustom themselves to
speak slowly, distinctly, and emphatically,
and to keep themselves erect.
Q. 266. Should we breathe through the
mouth or the nose?
A. We should breathe through the nose,
but not through the mouth; it is therefore
necessary to keep the nose always clean by
blowing it, and to endeavour to breathe
through the nose and keep the mouth shut
during sleep.
Q. 267. Are there no other parts of the
body which man should take particular
care in preserving?
A. Yes; his teeth; for the teeth are
not only necessary to assist us to pronounce
distinctly, but for chewing also; and on
the proper chewing of our food depends,
in a great measure, digestion, and the
nourishment, health, and prosperity of
mankind.
Q. 268. How are the teeth injured?
A. By much fluid aliment; by coffee,
tea,


100 Of the Preservation of the Human Body.
tea, and other warm stops used instead of
cold water; by corrupted air in apart-
ments; by uncleanliness; by the use of
tobacco; by bits of food, particularly
meat, sticking between them; by hot
meats and liquors; by filling the mouth
alternately with hot and cold things; by-
biting hard substances, and picking our
teeth with knives, forks, pins, and needles;
all which practices are highly injurious to
them.
OBSERVATION.
Nobody should put pins or needles in
their mouth; they may easily be swal-
lowed and cause death. In general it
would be well to make as little use of
pins, even in dressing, as possible.
Q. 269. By what means are the teeth
preserved sound?
A. By the early habit of properly chew-
ing our food; by drinking cold water: by
breathing pure air, and eating cold or tepid
aliment, and drinking no warm liquors at
all: by cleaning the teeth after each meal,
either by drinking or gargling the mouth;
and by refraining from picking of them;
all


101 Of the Preservation of the Human Body.
all this is necessary to keep the teeth sound
and beautiful.
Q. 270. By what means are the front
teeth preserved sound?
A. By constant use, and the chewing
particularly of dry substances, as bread, &c.
OBSERVATION.
Children are not to cut with a knife the
bread that has been handed to them,
but to break it with the teeth and chew
it.
Q. 271. Should children also preserve
their milk-teeth.
A. By all means; for the lasting teeth,
which are hid by them, are injured if the
milk-teeth are not kept sound by much
chewing.
Q. 272. If the teeth be not kept sound
from childhood, and are injured, can they
be restored to their original state?
A. No, that cannot be done; but through
cleanliness, chewing, pure air, and cold water,
injured teeth may be preserved from further
injury.
Q.


102 Of the Preservation of the Human Body.
Q. 273. What are the best remedies to
prevent tooth-ache?
A. Chewing, drinking of and gargling
with cold water; pure air, cleanliness of
the mouth, keeping the head cool, bathing
the face, after rising in the morning, and
before going to bed, in cold water.
Q. 274. Does the preservation of the
spittle deserve our particular notice?
A. Very much. The spittle is very neces-
sary in chewing and digestion, and for that
reason the smoking and chewing of tobacco,
by which a great deal of the spittle is wast-
ed, is a very bad custom, as is also the wer-
ting with spittle the thread when spinning
flax or hemp.
OBSERVATION.
The thread may be wetted with wa-
ter rendered clammy by beer, soap,
ground lintseed, bran, thin dough,
starch, kernels of quinces, bird-lime,
or others things. And besides, the
flax or hemp should be well beat
before it is put on the distaff, and well
dusted,


103 Of the Beauty, &c of the Human Body.
dusted, else, in spinning, the dust or
woody particles will be drawn by the
breath into the lungs, and occasion
coughing, stuffing, and perhaps a con-
sumption.
XXI. Of the Beauty and Perfection of the
Human Body.
Q. 275. WHAT is the basis of
beauty?
A. Health, and the perfect conforma-
tion of the body.
OBSERVATION.
"Health," Says Bertuch (see Journal of
Luxes and Fashion,) March 1793,
page, 189, "is the only and infalli-
"ble source of beauty; all other
"modes of attaining it, such as folly,
"imposture, and ignorance have de-
"vised, may be compared to a plaster,
"which soon falls off, leaving mourn-
"ful traces of disease behind. The
"beautiful


104 Of the Beauty, &c. of the Human Body.
"beautiful bloom of youth, the fresh
"colour, the perfection of the whole
"bodily structure, the free and easy
"play of the muscles, the fulness of
"the veins, the clear, delicately-spread,
"trasparent skin, the glance of the
"eye so expressive of life and of the
"condition of the soul, great cheer-
"fulness; all announce inexpressi-
"ble sensation of contentment and
"delight; which dispenses health and
"happiness both of soul and body,
"makes the husband, the wife, the
"youth, the virgin, and the infant
"happy, and bestows on every mem-
"ber of society charms and attractive
"powers which no art in the world
"can afford.”
Q. 276. By what particular means may
health be attained?
A. By free and easy exercise of the body
during infancy.
Q. 277. What is besides requisite and
necessary?
A. Free, pure air; washing and bathing;
a


105 Of the Beauty, &c. of the Human Body.
a light easy dress; clear cold water for drink-
ing; and simple good meals to nourish the
body.
Q. 278. By what means is the perfection
of the body to be attained?
A. By avoiding sloth and inactivity till
the twelfth year, after which plays and ex-
ercises will bring the body to every degree
of perfection of which it is susceptible.
Q. 279. What is yet necessary to facili-
tate the improvement of the body?
A. The instruction of children in the va-
rious exercises of the body, which tend to
render man healthy, strong, industrious,
and happy.
Q. 280. What posture of the body ought
we to recommend to children and to every
one?
A. The erect posture, whether we stand
or walk, keeping the breast and head ele-
vated; and on all occasions that will admit
of it, an upright posture is best.
Q. 281. What, therefore, may be con-
sidered as very hurtful?
A. Walking, standing, or fitting negli-
gently, remaining bent or crooked, hang-
ing down the head while we speak or listen,
and looking askance.
L Q.



106 Of the Beauty, &c. of the Human Body.
Q. 282. Is it proper to accustom children
to make use on all occasions of the right
hand only?
A. No; that is very wrong. Children
are to be taught to make the same use of the
left hand as of the right.
Q. 283. What does most diminish
beauty?
A. The habit which children sometimes
contract of making wry faces and foolish
gestures.
Q. 284. Is the beauty of man all that
depends on his perfection?
A. No. Innocence and peace, reason and
virtue, the consciousness of having done
one's duty, and contributed towards the
general good, in endeavouring to diffuse
happiness among mankind in this terrestrial
abode, all shew the perfection, the beauty
and dignity of man.
SECOND


107 Of Diseases, Physicians, and Medicines.
SECOND DIVISION.
OF DISEASES.
XXII. Of Diseases, Physicians, and
Medicines.
OBSERVATION.
IF people lived as they ought to do,
they would be exposed to very few in-
ternal complaints, perhaps none at
all; and the little ailments to which
Nature, under all circumstances, is
obnoxious, would be removed by
those


108 Of Diseases, Physicians, and Medicines.
those powers with which God has en-
downed her, for the preservation of the
life and health of the human body, con-
structed with infinite wisdom and intel-
ligence. But people, seduced by their
passions and misguided by error, lead
an irregular and dissolute life, and thus
expose themselves to a train of melan-
choly diseases.
Q. 285. Tell me then, what ought those
to do that are taken ill?
A. They ought to keep themselves tran-
quil and composed, and apply for the assist-
ance of a physician.
Q. 286. What knowledge should a phy-
sician have who undertakes the cure of
diseases?
A. He should have a thorough knowledge
of the beautiful and complicated structure of
the human body; know the various causes
of diseases, their nature and their mode of
adion on the human body; how the heal-
ing power of nature operates; and how
medicines, whose virtues he ought to be
acquainted with, contribute to remove or
cure diseases.
Q. 287. Is the knowledge necessary for
a


109 Of Diseases, Physicians, and Medicines.
a physician easily attained by reading a few
books, or by conversation?
A. No. It is a very difficult matter to
attain a thorough knowledge of the science
of physic, which those who practice it
should begin to study in their youth, and
cultivate continually through life with great
assiduity and pains.
Q. 288. To whom should a patient ap-
ply for assistance?
A. Not to a quack, but to a physician
of understanding, knowledge, and redi-
tude of heart; who has received a regular
education, and studied methodically the
very difficult art of knowing and curing
diseases.
Q. 289. What class of people do you
call quacks?
A. All those who are not acquainted with
the structure of the human body, and who
have not methodically studied the science of
curing diseases; all those who presume to
judge of the nature of a disease by the
urine only; who arrogantly promise to
cure every malady; and all those are also
chaffed among quacks who are not proper-
ly authorized to act in the capacity of phy-
sicians.
L3 Q.


110 Of Disases, Physician, and Medicines.
Q. 290. Is it possible to learn the nature
of a disease from the urine?
A. No. The urine by itself cannot deter-
mine the nature of a malady. Those, there-
fore, that set up as water-doctors, are gene-
rally importers; by whom many lose not
only their money, but their health and
lives.
Q. 291. Can maladies originate in su-
pernatural causes, such as witchcraft or for-
cery?
A. No; it were nonsensical and foolish
to believe it. Nature operates universally;
and all diseases spring from natural causes.
Q. 292. What opinion may we form of
travelling, advertising operators, that pre-
tend to cure ruptures by cutting; and what
are we to think of itinerant dentists and o-
culists?
A. They are mostly imposters, who have
no other view than to defraud the credulous
of their money.
Q. 293. Is it reasonable to buy medicines
for man or beast of those medicine-hawkers
who travel about the country?
A. No; for by the stuff which those va-
gabonds sell, life and health may be lost;
their 


111 Of Diseases, Physicians, and Medicines.
their nostrums should not be given to any
even of the brute creation.
Q. 294. Is it adviseable to take domestic
remedies, or family receipts?
A. No. In a hundred such, there is
hardly one that answers the purpose. The
best, the only, and universal domestic re-
medies which the Almighty has given us
are—fresh air and cold water.
Q. 295. What are we to observe respect-
ing those universal, or secret medicines, for
the cure, for instance, of canine madness,
the ague, &c.?
A. Nothing favourable; they expose
health and life to the utmost danger.
OBSERVATION.
The secret remedies against the canine
madness, and those which are usually
resorted to as infallible, are good for
nothing. The only certain means of
preventing the fatal effects consequent
on the bite os a mad-dog (producing
canine madness, shewn, by a strong
abhorrence srom water), are cutting
out the bitten part, or burning it with
a 


112 Of Diseases, Physicians, and Medicines.
a hot iron, or washing the wound as
soon as poslible, and very often with
water, or washing it with soap lye,
which destroys the surface of it; or,
filling it and covering the edges of it
with Spanish-flies, which, by inducing
copious suppuration, draw all the poi-
son from the part affected.
Universal medicines (so called) are vainly
offered for the cure of many, nay,
even os all diseases; but, in truth,
there are no such medicines. The me-
dicines so much recommended in news-
papers, and the majority of English pa-
tent medicines, are good for nothing.
Q. 296. When people have received
hurts, to whom are they to apply for assist-
ance?
A. To a surgeon.
Q. 297. Is it very easy to attain a proper
knowdedge os surgery?
A. No. To become a good surgeon,
much study and labour are necessary.
Q. 298. Where ought those medicines
to be bought that are prescribed by a physi-
cian or surgeon?
A. In the shops of apothecaries who are
authorised 


113 Of Diseases, Physicians, and Medicines. 
authorised to sell medicines, and who are
noted for order and cleanliness, as well as
for the ability with which they conduct busi-
ness.
Q. 299. Is the art of an apothecary easily
leanrt?
A. No; it is very difficult; many years
are required to become acquainted with all
the medicines, to know their properties,
and how to prepare them judiciously.
Q. 300. At what period of a disease is it
most proper to apply to a physician?
A. Immediately on the first attack.
Q. 301. What knowledge and informa-
tion doth a physician require that he may
be able to cure a disease.
A. He must know the nature and the
cause of the disease; it is therefore indis-
pensably necessary to acquaint him with all
the circumstances and symptoms of the dis-
ease, and to lay before him the whole state
of the patient from the beginning of it,
with the greatest exactness; he must know
the constitution, and the manner of living,
of the patient, and likewise every circum-
stance which might have operated in produc-
ing the disease.
Q. 302. What is therefore proper? 
A.

114 Of Diseases, Physicians, and Medicines.
A. That the physician see and speak to
the patient himself, and investigate the nature
and cause of the disease?
Q. 303. Suppose certain circumstances
prevent this, what must then be done?
A. An exact and circumstantial statement
of the case of the patient must be drawn by
some intelligent person and sent to the doctor.
OBSERVATION.
In order to do this properly, every house-
keeper, or, at least, every parish, in
the country, in or near which there is
no physician, ought to be in possession
of certain rules, according to which,
such a statement may be drawn proper-
ly. I therefore apprize the public, that
a book, much read in Germany, con-
taining such rules, and much other
useful matter, is now translating, and
will soon be published.
Q. 304. What is required of a patient
under the care of a physician?
A. That he take the medicines which
the


115 Of Diseases, Physicians, and Medicines. 
the physician has prescribed, faithfully, re-
gularly, in due time, and in the dose pre-
scribed.
Q. 305. Is it to be expected that a seri-
ous indisposition should be cured by one
prescription?
A. No. As well may we expect a large
tree to be cut down by one stroke of an axe,
as a disease of any consequence to be cured
by the first prescribed physic.
Q. 306. If, then, the first prescribed
medicine does not give relief, must the pa-
tient persevere in the use of it, or employ
another doctor?
A. The patient must continue to take
medicine till the disease be cured; but he
must not go from one doctor to another.
Q. 307. Is it sufficient that the patient
take the medicine prescribed, in order to
obtain a cure?
A. No; it is not sufficient: he must ob-
serve a proper diet, without which medi-
cines become of little use. Diseases are
often cured by the healing powers of na-
ture, assisted only by proper regimen.
XXIII. 


116 Of Diseases, Physicians, and Medicines.
XXIII. Of the Conduct to be observed by
Patients afflicted with Fevers.
OBSERVATION.
THOSE diseases are denominated fe-
brile which manifest themselves by cold
or hot fits, and an unnatural alteration
in the pulse, commonly accompanied
with dislike to food, vomiting, weak-
ness, anxiety, and pains all over the
body, or in particular parts, and head-
ach.
Q. 308. A rich person is a poor, helpless
creature, oppressed by anxiety and pains;—
how, then, ought he to be treated?
A. With the greatest tenderness, kind-
ness, and affection; he ought to be attend-
ed and nursed with great and judicious
care.
Q. 309. Is it proper to talk much to per-
sons 


117 Of the Conduct of Patients with Fevers.
sons suffering under grievous diseases, or to
make great noise and confusion about them?
A. No. Sick people ought as little as
possible to be disturbed by talking; and
every thing about them ought to be quiet.
Q. 310. Is it proper to admit visitors, or
many persons, into the room where a sick
person lies?
A. No; because the air becomes cor-
rupted by the breath and exhalations from
so many visitors, who generally come
through curiosity, and therefore ought not
to be admitted.
Q. 311. What ought to be the state of
the air in the rooms or chambers of the
sick?
A. All sick persons, particularly those
that labour under fever, ought to breathe
fresh, pure, and dry air.
Q. 312. Is fresh air so necessary for
them?
A. Yes. It is indispensably necessary for
them, for it is most effectual in cooling and
composing them, and diminishes anxiety.
Q. 313. What is further necessary?
A. That the room where the sick person
lies be aired by keeping the window open al-
most the whole day; that the windows and
M doors



118 Of the Conduct of Patients with Fevers.
doors be thrown open occasionally, and
that all superflous, especially all soft fur-
niture be removed from the chamber of
one ill of a fever.
Q. 314 What kind of room is best a-
dapted for a sick person?
A. A dry, lofty and large room; not a
low, narrow, damp, and musty room: it
must be kept clean and orderly, all dust
and nastiness removed, and nothing suffered
in it that can corrupt or infect the air.
Q. 315. Should the room of a sick per-
son be lightsome or dark?
A. It should not be very lightsome, but
rather darkish, as the light disturbs the re-
pose of the patient.
Q. 316. What kind of bed doth a sick
person require?
A. An orderly and clean bed, not too
warm, with covering not too heavy, bed
not too soft, and clean linen. If straw be
used instead of mattrasses, it must be fresh
and dry, and free from all offensive
smell.
Q. 317. Is it good or bad for persons ill
of fevers to lie on feather beds?
A. It is hurtful; for such beds make the
fever 


119 Of the Conduct of Patients with Fevers. 
fever worse. They should lie on matrasses
stuffed with horse hair, or on straw, covered
with a light quilt.
Q. 318. May two sick persons, or one
sick person and a person in good health, lie
together in one bed?
A. No; every sick person ought to have
a bed to himself, and, is particular circum-
stances do not intervene, a room also—with
respect to healthy persons, they ought not
to sleep in the bed, or in the room, of one
that is sick.
Q. 319. May the curtains of the bed be
drawn in which a sick person lies?
A. No; because it deprives him of the
fresh air.
Q. 320. Ought not the bed of a sick
person to be shaken and made daily?
A. Yes; a sick person ought to be taken
every day out of bed, when he can bear
it, that the bed may be made.
Q. 321. How ought a sick person to be
dressed?
A. His dress ought to be clean and com-
fortable.
Q. 322. Ought not the sheets of the bed,
and 


120 Of the Conduct of Patients with Fevers.
and the shirt or shift of the sick person to be
changed?
A. Yes; they ought to be often changed
—but the clean linen substituted ought to be
well aired?
Q. 323. How ought the bed of a sick
person to be placed?
A. Not near a cold, damp wall, but in
an open, free situation, that the person may
be approached and assisted on either side
without inconvenience.
Q. 324. Is it proper to keep the heads of
persons ill of fevers, who are commonly
very much affected with head-achs, warm.
A. No; their heads are to be kept cool
and uncovered, that the head-ach and deli-
rium may not increase.
Q. 325. What are sick persons to drink,
particularly those who are afflicted with fe-
vers, which induce thirst?
A. Cold, pure water, which in fevers
ought to be mixed with vinegar or lemon-
juice. A piece of toasted bread may also,
be added, being a good ingredient.
Q. 326. Is it good to warm or boil the
water?
A. 


121 Of the Conduct of Patients with Fevers.
A. No; it should neither be warmed nor
boiled.
Q. 327. Is it proper for sick persons to
drink much tea?
A. No; it is commonly hurtful to
them.
OBSERVATION.
The drinking of much warm tea is also
very hurtful to women in childbed;
cold tea is preferable.
Q. 328. Do persons ill of fever like to
drink cold water?
A. Yes; cold water and fresh air are the
best strengtheners for such persons; they
refresh, and diminish the anxiety and pains.
Q. 329. Must a person in a fever drink
much water?
A. Yes; he ought to drink a great deal.
Q. 330. Doth cold water chill a person
afflicted with fever?
A. No; a person after drinking cold
water falls often into a gentle perspiration;
and warm liquids frequently produce heat
without any perspiration.
M3 OB-
           


122 Of the Conduct of Patients with Fevers.
OBSERVATION.
In fluxes, and a few other diseases, warm
drinks may perhaps answer better than
cold.
Q. 331. What regimen ought sick per-
sons to observe?
A. Persons afflicted with violent fever, or
who labour under any other dangerous ma-
lady, lose all appetite, and therefore are not
to be pressed to eat.
Q. 332. Why should not persons in fever
be pressed to eat?
A. Because they do not digest; and food
remaining undigested in the stomach, ag-
gravates all diseases, particularly fevers.
Q. 333. Is it proper to permit a person
afflicted with the first attack of fever to
eat, if he has an appetite?
A. No; it is better for him to fast; for
the eating of any thing readily increases the
disease; fasting diminishes it; and there is
no danger of starving.
Q. 334. What kind of nourishment is
best 


123 Of the Conduct of Patients with Fevers.  
best in fever, should the sick person be de-
sirous of any?
A. Butter-milk, sour milk, fresh, ripe,
juicy fruits, strawberries, gooseberries,
raspberries, cherries, plums, grapes, ap-
ples, pears, baked or dried fruit, barley wa-
ter, or water-gruel mixed with vinegar or
lemon-juice; and, in short, whatever can
cool and refresh the patient.
Q. 335. What kinds of food are persons
afflicted with fever to avoid?
A. Animal food, whether flesh, fish or
fowl, broths, butter, eggs, pastry, or bread
not well fermented or baked, are not to be
allowed to such persons.
Q. 336. When does their appetite re-
turn?
A. Not till the fever is cured, and rest
and sleep restored.
Q. 337. Should persons labouring under
fever be kept warm or cool?
A. Such patients ought to be kept cool,
avoiding all heat; and for that reason fires
must not be made in the room where the
patient lies, for his situation requires him
to be kept more cool than warm.
Q. 338. Is it good to sprinkle perfumes
on the patient, or in his room?
A. 


124 Of the Conduct of Patients with Fevers.
A. Fresh air is better than all incense;
but in malignant diseases it is very proper to
correct the air by sprinkling hot vinegar in
the room repeatedly during the day.
OBSERVATION.
John Howard, that friend to mankind,
who, in visiting and exploring prisons,
hospitals, and lazarettos, sacrificed his
life for the benefit of the human race,
said, "The use of perfumes or incense
"is a clear demonstration of the want
"of cleanliness and fresh air."
Q. 339. Is it good in fevers to take any
medicines to promote perspiration?
A. No; in most cases it is dangerous;
many fevers become by such means mortal.
Such remedies or liquors as induce perspira-
tion should therefore not be taken without
the advice of a physician.
Q. 340. May a person ill of a fever be
bled?
A. It is in many fevers dangerous to
bleed; and without the approbation of a
physician no bleeding should take place in
fevers. 
Q.

125 Of the Conduct of Patients with Fevers. 
Q. 341. But is it advisable for people in
good health to accustom themselves to be
bled annually once or twice?
A. No. People that are in good health
should never be bled; for by bleeding with-
out necessity the blood is depraved, the body
weakened, and health impaired.
OBSERVATION.
Bleeding pregnant women once or twice
during their pregnancy is a very bad
custom, hurtful both to mother and
child.
Q. 342. Are vomits prescribed by a phy-
sician dangerous?
A. Vomits prescibed by a physician are
not dangerous; they often do not weaken
so much as purges.
OBSERVATION.
As many maladies, and particularly many
fevers, originate in, or are connected
with, a foulness of the stomach, vomits
are 


125 Of the Conduct of Patients with Fevers.
are often of very great service, as they
expel all foulness from the stomach.
Q. 343. Should those who are ill of fe-
ver be permitted to remain long costive?
A. No. In fevers colliveness is very dan-
gerous.
OBSERVATION.
For persons whose general health is good,
and who are slightly indisposed, stewed,
fresh, or dried fruit, particularly
plums, are a good remedy against cos-
tiveness.
Q. 344. If a person be sick, and at the
same time costive, by what means ought he
to be relieved?
A. By a clyster.*
Q. 345. Are clysters dangerous, or
doubtful remedies?
A. No; they are not.
Q. 346. What are we so observe with
regard to the habit which some people have
acquired of taking purges annually, at cer-
tain periods?
A.
* Called in Scotland an injection. 


127 Of the Conduct of Patients with Fevers. 
A. It is a very bad custom; and medi-
cines sold by pedlars and such vagabonds
are commonly very pernicious.
Q. 347. Ought children in good health
to be purged often?
A. No; it tends to nothing good; and
in general the health of children should be
preserved by proper attention to diet and
cleanliness, and by much exercise in the
open air, for it cannot be done by medi-
cines.
Q. 348. Is it good to make use of plas-
ers and salves in cases of wounds, contu-
sions, or ulcers?
A. No; plasters and salves seldom do
good; in most cases they do more harm
than good.
OBSERVATION.
In cases of ulcers on the feet, or St. An-
thony's fire, in particular, plasters and  
salves are carefully to be avoided, as
very bad, and produdive often of ob-
stinate sores.
Q. 349. What must be done with wounds
that 


128 Of the Conduct of Patients with Fevers.
that are not very large and deep, where
neither a great vein nor the bowels are
hurt?
A. The wound must be bandaged with a
dry linen cloth, without being previously
washed or cleansed with brandy or water;
for the blood, which is better than all plas-
ters and salves, will often perfectly cure the
wound without any suppuration.
Q. 350. What is best to be done in cases
of contusion?
A. Linen cloths dipped in equal quan-
tities of vinegar and water should be con-
tinually applied cold to the injured part:
the pains will thus be abated, and the ex-
travasated blood absorbed.
OBSERVATION.
Little ulcers may be dressed with lint; or
a linen bandage dipped in vinegar.
Q. 351. How are scalded parts to be
cured?
A. If (exactly as directed for contusions)
linen cloths dipped in cold vinegar and wa-
ter be applied from the beginning, and re-
peated every quarter of an hour, the burns
will be cured better than by plasters and
salves.
OB- 


129 Of Diseases, &c. and particular Maladies.  
OBSERVATION.
Vinegar and water (equal parts) cure also
sore nipples. Mothers may prevent
soreness of the nipples by washing
them often in cold water before and
after delivery.
XXIV. Of Diseases which universally pre-
vail; of Endemial, and of particular
Maladies.
Q. 352. IF diseases be very rise, and
attack many, must the healthy take medi-
cines, in order to escape infection?
A. No; a healthy person should never
take physic.
Q. 353. Should not people in such a case
purge,
N 


130 Of Diseases, &c. and particular Maladies.
purge, take emetics or sweating potions, or
be bled?
A. No; such weakening remedies would
rather favour then prevent infection.
Q. 354. Is it good  to take strengthen-
ing medicines for the stomach?
A. No; they are more hurtful than be-
neficial.
Q. 355. What should a person in good
health do, to escape general contagion?
A. He should be very temperate in eat-
ing and drinking, be very cleanly, take a
great deal of exercise, and be careful not
to over-heat himself or to catch cold.
OBSERVATION.
In times of scarcity, putrid fevers and
contagious diseases, which sometimes
depopulate whole provinces, are caused
by eating bad bread and by unwhole-
some food in general.
Q. 356. Is no other precaution necessary?
A. Yes; as diseases that generally prevail
are often contagious, we should not expose
ourselves 


131 Of Diseases, &c. and particular Maladies.  
ourselves to danger by visiting patients,
nurses, or hospitals.
Q. 357. When certain diseases, for in-
stance the ague, are endemial, and stag-
nant waters or marshes in the neighbour-
hood are the cause of such fevers,  what
should the inhabitants do?
A. They ought to drain off the waters,
and dry the marshes, and the fever will
cease; for with the cause the effect natural-
ly ceases.
Q. 358. If mechanics or artisans be often
attacked by diseases peculiar to them, a
stone-mason, for instance, by consumption,
painters by colic, what ought they to do?
A. They ought, as sensible men, who
wish to be healthy and live long, to investi-
gate the true cause of their frequent disease,
and strive to find out how they can dimin-
ish or avoid it.
OBSERVATION.
Those who are to lead a sedentary life,
females, mechanics, artists, the studi-
ous, ought, from their infancy till the
complete shedding of the teeth in the-
twelfth year, to be exhorted or obliged
to take a great deal of bodily exer- 
cise

132 Of Contagious Diseases.
cise in the open air, in order that sub-
fequent inactivity and confinement
may not injure their health and hap-
piness too much.
XXV. Of Contagious Diseases.
Q. 359. WHAT diseases are pe-
culiarly contagious?
A. Putrid fevers, spotted fevers, the
yellow and scarlet fever, dysentery, small-
pox, and measles. The plague, the worst
of all diseases is very infectious.
Q. 360. How is the infection of them
communicated?
A. By contact, or through the air im-
pregnated with putrid streams or noxious
particles proceeding from patients labour-
ing under any of those diseases.
Q. 361. What is particularly to be ob-
served with respected to alleviating the symp-
toms in contagious diseases?
A. 


133 Of Contagious Diseases. 
A. The air, as well in the room as in the
house where the patient lies, ought to be
preserved continually pure and fresh, by
keeping one window always, and the win-
dows and doors occasionally, open. In short,
one cannot be too assiduous in procuring
constant fresh air.
Q. 362. What is further to be observed?
A. The greatest cleanliness ought to be
observed with regard to the patient, the
bed, the loom, and attendants, observing
not to keep the room too warm.
Q. 363. What else should be done to
guard against infection?
A. Previous to visiting a patient we should
take some nourishment;—we should, how-
ever, avoid eating any thing in the apart-
ments of the sick; but be chearful and not
timid, and as far as we can, administer re-
lief and comfort.
Q. 364. What duties do those who are
intrusted with the care of such patients owe
to their fellow-creatures?
A. They ought, in order to prevent the
infection from spreading, to keep by them-
selves, avoid all unnecessary intercourse
with other people, and not enter any school
or
N3 


134 Of Contagious Diseases.
or church; and the children and domestics
of such patients should be placed under the
same restraint.
OBSERVATION.
Contagious diseases are often communica-
ted to schools by children, and so spread
to distant parts.
Q. 365. May many persons be admitted
into the room of a patient who is infected
with a contagious disease?
A. None but those that are intrusted with
the care of the patient; and and all curi-
ous visitors should be refused admittance
without any ceremony.
Q. 366. Why is it a duty incumbent on
the healthy to avoid approaching an infected
person when there is no pressing necessity to
expose ourselves to contagion?
A. Because self-preservation, and what
we owe to our families and fellow-creatures,
directs us not to endanger our own health,
and especially not to endanger the health of
our fellow-creatures. 
Q.

135 Of Contagious Diseases.  
Q. 367. If an infected person dies,
what is then to be done?
A. The corpse must not be exposed to
public view, hut buried as soon as possible,
avoiding all pomp, and admitting but few
to attend the funeral.
Q. 368. Is not the itch a contagious
disease?
A. Yes; it is communicated very readily
by contact with an infected person.
Q. 369. What must be done to escape
this disease?
A. We must avoid the company of in-
fected persons.
OBSERVATION.
Children who have the itch, or scurfy
heads, should not be admitted into
schools, that other children may not
be infected. If school-masters, as it
is their duty, would take the trouble
of examining the hands of their pu-
pils, and would command them to be
washed daily before coming to school,
children 


136 Of the Small-Pox.
children so infected would soon be
found out.
Q. 370. Is it dangerous in cases of itch,
scurf, or leprosy, to use mercurial oint-
ment?
A. Yes; it is very dangerous.
XXVI. Of the Small-Pox.
Q. 371. FROM what can the degree
of danger in small-pox be conjectured?
A. Chiefly from their number. If the
pustules be few, there is little danger; but
where they are many, and confluent, the
danger is great.
Q. 372. What is therefore lucky?
A. To have but few pustules.
Q. 373. At what period of the disease
may we apprehend danger?
A. 


137 Of the Small-Pox 
A. Not at the beginning when the pus-
tules come forth, but towards the end,
when they suppurate and dry.
Q. 374. When a child has symptoms
of being infected with this disease, is it pro-
per to have recourse to wine, brandy, warm
rooms and beds to forward the eruption?
A. No; it would be acting very injudicious-
ly; for by such means we should increase
the number of pustules, and consequent-
ly the danger.
Q. 375. What is then to be done?
4. The cure must be left to nature, ob-
serving only, during the preiod of the erup-
tive fever, which lasts two, three, or four
days, to keep the patient cool and in fresh
air, allowing him but little nourishment,
and cold water only for drink.
Q. 376. When at last the pustules come
out, what must be done in the course of
the disease?
A. We should keep the patient in a situa-
tion where the air is pure, cool, and dry;
give for drink cold water, and enjoin tem-
perance and moderation in eating and drink-
ing.
Q.


138 Of the Small Pox.
Q. 377. Is it good to lie in bed in the
day-time at the period of the eruptive fever,
before the eruption of the small-pox, and
during the whole course of the disease?
A. No; it is not good in the day-time:
the patient, if possible, should keep out of
bed, and at night lie in a bed that is not too
warm, nor fusty; feather-beds are therefore
very hurtful to this class of patients.
Q. 378. When the eye-lids are inflamed
and closed, is it right to force them open,
and apply to, or blow into, them spices, or
other hot things?
A. No; the eye-lids must not be forced
open, or meddled with, nor ought inflam-
matory things, which induce blindness, to
be applied to them; but when at last they
open of themselves care must be taken that
the eyes be not irritated by too much light
in the room, which should be kept dark-
some, both before and after they open.
Particular attention is also to be paid to
keeping the air in the room pure and cool.
Q. 379. Is great mortality occasioned by
the small-pox?
A. 


139 Of the Small-Pox. 
A. Yes; in general out of ten patients
labouring under the natural small-pox, one
dies.
ADDRESS TO CHILDREN.
Children, the natural small-pox is a bad
distemper—as bad as the plague? But
God has, in his goodness, enabled
man to find out a remedy for the alle-
viation of the great miseries occasion-
ed by it. He has led us to the impor-
tant discovery of inoculation, which
destroys in a great degree the virulence
of this baneful disease.
When children are inoculated they have
only a few pustules of the best kind;
they are seldom confined to bed; sel-
dom lose their health; and of a hundred
inoculated hardly one dies; where-
as one out of ten of those afflicted with
the natural small-pox generally dies.
Q. 380. Do you wish to be made ac-
quainted with the process of inoculation?
A. Yes; if you will be so kind as to ex-
plain it.
IN- 


140 Of the Small-Pox.
INSTRUCTION HOW TO INOCULATE.
In order to inoculate a child in a good
state of health, a needle is dipped in a
little fresh thin matter of true small-
pox, with few pustules. With this
needle an incision is made of the
breadth of a straw under the scarf skin
of the arm above the elbow, with-
out drawing any blood, so that the
matter shall be lodged under the upper
skin; and this is called inoculation for
the small-pox.
The effect produced, and the conduct to
be observed by the patients, are as fol-
lows: Having the great advantage of
knowing to a certainty that the person
inoculated will have the small-pox
within ten or fourteen days, the stric-
test regularity and temperance with
regard to diet is to be enjoined.
The fourth, fifth, or sixth day the in-
cisions become inflamed, red, thick,
and hard; and from this time till the
complete restoration of the patient to
perfect health; the incisions, which
are often much inflamed, and from
which a great deal of matter oozes,
ought 


141 Of the Small-Pox.  
ought to be repeatedly washed every
day with cold water.
The seventh, eighth, or ninth day after
the inoculation, the patient feels pains
under the arm, and is attacked by
head-ach, and fever; and sometimes
vomits.
This fever lasts two, three or four days,
during which period the patient should
not remain in bed, but, though it may
be very inconvenient in the beginning,
walk, or be carried about, where there
is fresh, pure, cool air, which is abso-
lutely necessary.
In free and cool air, the fever and head-
ach go off; and if the forehead and
arms be frequently washed in cold wa-
ter, almost all illness will go off.
The second, third, and fourth day of
the fever, or the tenth, eleventh, or
twelfth day after inoculation, some-
times later, the small-pox come forth
of their own accord: they ought not
to be forced to make their appear-
ance.
In most cases there are few pustules,
which, being good, the disease is soon
at
O 


142 Of the Measles.
at an end. The pustules in this case
contain little matter, and dry soon;
and it is only necessary to keep the
patient regular and in fresh air, to pre-
vent the disease from becoming dan-
gerous.
Q. 381. Can a person be enfected twice
by the small-pox?
A. No; the true small-pox cannot in-
fect the same person more than once: all
stories of getting the infection twice are
erroneous.
XXVII. Of the Measles.
Q. 382. ARE the measles a bad dis-
temper?
A. Yes; they take away the lives of
many; and even after they go off leave be-
hind complaints which often prove fatal.
Q. 383. What may particularly be ob-
served 


143 Of the Bloody-Flux, &c. 
served with regard to this disease, which is
so often hurtful to the lungs.
A. Patients afflicted with it must be kept
a little warmer than is necessary in cases of
small-pox, but not too warm; they ought
to breathe pure air, and great care is to
be taken that they do not expose themselves
to cold.
Q. 384. When this disease goes off,
what are we to do for the patient, that
he may not suffer from the consequences
of it.
A. The patient for some time must guard
against cold air, and put on warm clothing.
XXVII. Of the Bloody-Flux, or Dysentery.
Q. 385. AT what season doth the
bloody-flux commonly appear?
A. In the summer, but mostly in the
autumn.
Q. 


144 Of de Bloody-Flux, &c.
Q. 386. Is the bloody-flux a bad and
dangerous disease?
A. Yes; it is a very malignant disease,
exposing the patient to great danger, if he
be improperly treated.
Q. 387. Is the bloody-flux the conse-
quence of eating fruit?
A. No; ripe, sweet, juicy fruits, rather
prevent than produce, this disease.
Q. 388. What precautions ought to be
taken to avoid infection?
A. People should be very careful to avoid
cold, and all unnecessary communication
with the sick.
Q. 389. The stomach and bowels of pa-
tients labouring under dysentery, are filled
with bitter, acrid, and putrid matter. Is
it proper to endeavour to stop the progress
of the disease by confining this matter in
the stomach and bowels?
A. No; the stopping of the bloody-flux
would endanger life; but the body ought
always to be cleansed by purges, and some-
times by vomits, at the beginning of the
disease.
Q. 390. What ought therefore to be
avoided?
A. 


145 Of Treatment after Diseases are removed. 
A. The stopping of the flux by any
means but especially by opium or laudanum,
which is very dangerous.
Q. 391. What is further to be observed,
as the bloody-flux is often infectious?
A. The greatest cleanliness; filling the
patient's chamber with fresh air, and taking
great care that any excrements, as soon as
voided, be carried out of the room, and
buried under much earth.
XXX. Of Treatment, after Diseases are
removed.
Q. 392. WHAT ought to be ob-
served after severe diseases are removed?
A. Regularity and temperance in eating
and drinking, taking only light nourishing
food, 


146 Of Treatment, after Diseases are removed.
food, and observing not to expose ourselves
too soon to the weather.     
Q. 393. May a person just restored to
health set to work immediately?
A. No; a person just risen from the bed
of sickness ought first completely to recruit
his natural strength before he begins to
work again.
THE END.